


Mech X4 Season 2 Spyder X oC

by orphan_account



Category: Mech-X4 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 45,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25807954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Yay! Season 2 time. One chapter per episode Read book 1 first.
Comments: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Alright so this is book 2 of my Mech X4 book. Enjoy ig.


	2. Episode 1

I’ve been at the art school for two weeks and today was my last day. It was amazing here. Ryan, Harris, Mark, Julia, Amy and Lily have all face-timed me every day while I was there. I haven’t heard from Spyder while I’ve been here, but I’ve done my best to try and forget him. Key word: Try. My roommate was pretty awesome. Her name was Alexa and she was a pro at guitar and dance. Anyway, today I go back to Bay City. Mark’s picking me up in 30 minutes. I was packing in my dorm.   
“Hey Liz, you done packing?” Alexa asked me.   
“Yea, almost. Hey, put your phone number in. I wanna stay in touch.” I told her and handed her my phone.   
“And done. Who’s picking you up?” She asked, “Also who’s the broken heart emoji?”  
“Mark’s picking me up and let’s not talk about that last part.” I told her.  
“Mark is…”  
“My… well he’s the brother of my twin brother but they’re not related. Me and Mark aren’t related either. But like, he’s the adoptee brother of my twin brother so I guess we’re siblings.” I explained  
“Woah. That’s confusing.” She said. I nodded and zipped up my bag.   
“I should go. Text me!” I told her and left. I was waiting outside when Mark showed up, with multiple people inside his car. I stood up.  
“So, how was the program?” Mark asked  
“It was amazing. Everyone with the same interests as me and we all did this one lesson where we produced a song together. We did covers of so many songs. My favourite was when we covered Stay by Alessia Cara and I got to sing and then when we covered the other side from the Greatest Showman, I got to play drums and it was awesome. Oh and there were dance classes and singing lessons too. There was also visual arts stuff but that wasn’t my ‘elective’.” I gushed  
“Ready for school?” Ryan asked.   
“Definitely, oh, hi Harris!” I added when I saw Harris and Spyder in the backseat. I climbed into the car, stuffed my suitcases in the trunk and we left. Mark got a new car and it flies too so as soon as we were out of sight, we rose into the air and took off.   
*timeskip*  
We were sitting on the couch and Ryan turned on the news.   
“Seth Harper, now believed to be dead.” Godfrey said  
“No. Nonononono! He- I-” I mumbled, putting my head in my hands  
“Why are you sad about him?” Harris asked. I took a deep breath.   
“As much as I hate him, and believe me, I really hate him, he was still my only family for the majority of my life.” I said, my voice cracking towards the end.   
“But its over.” Spyder told us  
“And best of all, tomorrow’s our first day at a new school.” Harris said. We all gave him reproachful looks, “I mean, party-bot y’all.” He amended, clapping his hands and a disco light came down.   
“I should go unpack and stuff. Thank your mom for letting me stay with you.” I mumbled to Ryan.   
“You want me to go with you?” Spyder asked. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. I walked out of the robot and made it back to Ryan’s house in record time. I knocked and Grace opened the door.   
“Hi Ms. Walker. Thank you so much for letting me stay.” I told her  
“Of course! Mark’s dropped all your stuff off in your room, so have fun unpacking. It’ll be so nice to have another girl in the house.” Grace told me, kindly. I nodded and started unpacking all my stuff.   
*timeskip*  
“What’s the point of blowing up your school, if they’re just gonna send you to a different one?” Spyder asked.   
“Some of us, want to make money when we graduate!” I told him. The boys started talking and we walked inside. There seemed to be a lot of problems with electronics. I let Ryan do his thing and sat down against the wall and opened a book. I read for about 5 minutes then got up and went to my locker.   
“Hey, I know you’re new here, but uh… you’re kinda blocking my locker.” I heard a familiar voice say to me.   
“Veracity?!” I turned around and looked at her.   
“The one and only.” She said, and then noticed Harris, “oh great, he’s here too.”  
“Veracity, don’t”“Come on!” She said and dragged me behind her.   
“I spoke too soon.” Harris said  
“‘Sup Dweeb Jobs.” Veracity said  
“Oh great, you go here too.”  
“Oh do you go here? Man that is perfect timing. We were looking for a new assistant.” Veracity said  
“Leave me out of this.” I told her. They both ignored me.  
“Cute Veracity. The joke not the wardrobe.” Harris quickly added  
“The fact that you needed to specify is just-” I groaned and decided I wasn’t being heard. So I would just watch this train wreck waiting to happen.   
“Do not got there!” Veracity said as we walked to her locker.   
“Fair, too far.” Harris said and Veracity opened her iPad  
“Woah, why do you have a camera with government feed on it?” I asked, slightly in awe  
“You remember… no? Okay. See I’m what they call an ethical hacker.” Veracity said  
“So you test security.” I said  
“Exactly.”  
“Is that the feed from Bay City High?” Harris asked  
“They’re moving the ooze.” I pointed out  
“They’re taken it to be destroyed at 5 just like me destroying you in our kindergarten science fair.” Veracity said.   
“I’ll take your word for it, I didn’t go to your kindergarten.” I told them  
“Yea, I would’ve remembered you.” Veracity said. The bell rang and Veracity shut her locker.   
“Hey, how do I get to biology?” I asked her  
“I have the same class, follow me. Catch you on the shady side of the bell curve Ferris.” She said and dragged me by the arm to biology.   
“Alright class, your seating plan has been arranged. Groups of three, find your name tag.” The teacher told us. I quickly found mine. Front and centre, in between Veracity and Spyder. I internally groaned. I placed my backpack under the table and sat down. Veracity sat down next to me and Spyder on the other side.   
“Okay, you have five minutes to get to know each other.” The teacher said  
“Veracity, Spyder. Spyder, Veracity.” I said  
“Aren’t you two-” I cut Veracity off.   
“No.” I stated, simply  
“Oh… but Harris told me you two were dating.” She said, confused.   
“It’s not that hard to understand. We kissed, we dated and we broke up.” I told her  
“Technically I broke up with AHH.” Spyder gave a yelp of pain at the end. I elbowed him in the gut before he could say anything.   
“Okay! Your 5 minutes are up, turn to page 28 and begin reading. Today’s lesson will be on…” The teacher droned on and on.  
*timeskip*I caught up with Ryan and the others.   
“So Mech X4 should play shotgun just to keep it safe.” Ryan said  
“Cool. Lunch anyone?!” I asked. Ryan motioned to Wade and Mark fighting. He, Harris and Spyder left. I grabbed an apple at sat down against a wall and started reading while simultaneously keeping an eye on the fight. Spyder knocked a guy down yelling fight and I winced.   
“Are you positive you want them as friends?” Veracity asked, sitting next to me.   
“No comment.” I told her  
“That was a comment.” I shoved her playfully  
“You know what I mean. Those idiots are gonna get detention aren’t they.” I asked her, already knowing the answer.   
“Yup.”“Pray for me.” I told her and walked up to the fight.   
“If you get detention, I’ll bail you out.” Veracity told me.   
“Okay guys, why don’t we just stop and take a nice deep breath.” I said, trying to pacify the group.   
“Oh and you’re gonna do something about it?You’re just a little girl.” Wade asked/taunted me. I smiled sweetly.   
“I plan on doing something about it.” I told him.   
“Like what?” He asked  
“This.” I said simply before kneeing him in the stomach. That’s when all hell broke loose. I had 2 varsity guys on me and started fighting aggressively. I was able to get rid of one and started fighting with the others.   
“Woah, woah, woah, hey, hey, hey!” I heard the principal yell. We all broke apart. The varsity jerks on one side and Mech X4 on the other.   
“Who started this?” The principal asked.   
“They started it.” Ryan said  
“Oh you’re dead, little walker.” Wade said  
“We have names you know.” I told him  
“You’re also dead little Harper.” He told me  
“Considering the way I fought off the varsity jerks you threw at me, highly unlikely.” I told him  
“Detention!” The principal said  
“What but we have practice?!” Wade said  
“Not you, just them.” The principal said pointing at us.   
“EXCUSE ME?!” I demanded  
“yeah, there you go, on your way.” I stomped back to where Veracity was.   
“Ouch! I’ll bail you out later today. I didn’t know you could fight?”   
“Long story.” I told her

*timeskip*  
It was 4:29 and we were stuck in detention. I was replaying HSM2 in my mind. I had memorized it so… Harris, Spyder and I were watching Ryan and Mark fight like two teenage girls.   
“You can vision-board your feelings later. Right now, we gotta bolt.” I whisper-yelled  
“SHHH!” The teacher yelled and I jumped in my seat. We kept sitting in silence for a while. Where is Veracity?!   
“Okay guys, detention’s over.” Ryan said and made the teacher’s watch fizzle with electricity. I lit it on a tiny fire with one of my fingers and the teacher yelped and quickly batted it out. The guys looked at me.   
“I was getting tired of her shushing me.” I told them quietly, then in a louder voice I said, “You should really go get that checked out by the nurse, could be severe.” She thanked us and left, “you’re welcome.” I told the boys and we started creeping out of the room. We then saw the Principal. We quickly dove back in our seats. The principal tripped and his glasses were knocked off. Then Veracity appeared. She stepped on his glasses, spun him around, making him dizzy, and sent him back to his office. We all ran out.   
“So, where’s my thank you?” She asked me  
“You couldn’t have bailed us out sooner?” I asked her  
“Well, maybe I wanted to see you suffer just a tiny bit.” She told me. I glared at her and Harris approached us.   
“Why?” He asked Veracity  
“Well, Wade was lying and being a jerk and I didn’t think it was fair. Plus, I promised Liza I’d bail her out.” Veracity told him. Spyder then snuck up behind us  
“Ooh. Are you guys gonna go to prom, get a limo.” Spyder said. I dragged him away by the ear with a quick apology to Veracity. We all ran to the robot.   
We were following the trucks. It has been like a really long ride. I felt really sick.   
“Guys. Do we have like a trash can or somewhere I can throw up?” I asked, dizzily and held my hand to my mouth.   
“We’ve only been moving for an hour and a half.” Ryan said.   
“Down the hall and to the right is a bathroom.” Harris told me. I nodded and ran off to the bathroom. I started throwing up in the bathroom and felt someone hold my hair back. They offered me a cold towel and I turned around and saw Spyder.   
“What are you doing?” I asked him  
“Making sure you’re okay.” He told me.   
“Why do you care?” I scoffed. He sat down next to me  
“Because. I miss you okay! I miss not dating you. I miss not being able to give you hugs when you feel upset or comfort you. I miss your laugh and smile, when you laugh at my incredibly stupid jokes! Breaking up with you was wrong on my part.” Spyder told me. I was in slight shock for a good minute. “Say something. Anything. Yell at me for all I care.” Spyder told me.   
“You should go.” I told him. He nodded and left. I felt sick again and stayed in the bathroom for another fifteen minutes. I kept thinking about what Spyder told me. I didn’t still like him, did I? I finally left the bathroom and headed to the control centre  
“You good?” Mark asked. I nodded. Saying something was gonna make me feel sick again.   
“One truck broke away from the rest.” Ryan told us.  
“Can I shoot it?” Spyder asked  
“Someone could still be inside.” Ryan said and we went after the truck  
“Well whoever it is, I’m in the mood to kick some butt.” Mark said  
“yea, me too.” How oblivious can Ryan be?! We jumped in front of the truck, but the truck turned left, so we followed it. It drove into a warehouse.   
“Weird,” Harris said, “Somebody drove the truck in there but I’m not picking up anyone on my scanners.   
“Can we get on solid ground please?” I asked, queasily, holding my hand to my mouth. I went into the elevator while Ryan and Mark were arguing.  
“This is a bad idea!” Mark said before the elevator shot down and let us go. I stumbled around on the ground, trying not to be sick again.  
“Are you sure you’re okay to fight?” Harris asked me  
“Yea, I’m fine.” I told them. That was a lie.  
“Where’s your weapon?” Harris asked Mark and me  
“I am a weapon.” We both said at the same time. We walked to the warehouse in the rain, which felt nice and cool.   
“Come on out!” Ryan called out as we walked in. I was waking on one side with Mark and Ryan and Harris and Spyder were on the other side. The worker walked out  
“Take off your mask and put your hands where I can see them.” I said, carefully. The person whipped of their mask and…  
“Grey?” Ryan asked, with a mix of shock and astonishment.   
“Back from the dead!” She said  
“I don’t know how you survived, but lets not make this any harder than it has to be. Just give up.” I told her. She started growling and turned into a monster. I backed up slowly. She knocked Mark, Harris, Ryan and Spyder to the side, rendering them useless, she then morphed back into her regular self.   
“How…”  
“Just a happy little accident after you let me fall in Clawboon’s ooze.” She told me.   
“I wanted to save you. I tried to save you.” I told her  
“And you failed. And now you’re all alone.” She told me. I turned my heels into knives and got into a fighting position. We fought. She ended up disarming me. She grabbed me by my throat and lifted me into the air. I struggled for air and gasped. This is it. This is how I die?  
“Get away from her!” Ryan yelled with Mark behind him. Mark zapped Grey with Harris’s weapon and she threw both me and Ryan to the side. I groaned softly as my back hit a metal object. The object hit my spine and I was immobilized. The military arrived and Grey ran. Ryan and the others ran to me.   
“Guys, I can’t move.” I whimpered.   
“She’s paralyzed.” Harris said, “I can cure this but we have to get her back to the robot as soon as possible. She can’t move her lower body, so someone needs to carry her. Liz, are you okay?”   
“Gee, I dunno. My entire lower body is paralyzed so why wouldn’t I be fine?” I retorted.   
“I’ll carry her back.” Spyder said. I wanted to argue but I felt myself slipping away. Spyder picked me up.   
“Lizzy, don’t close your eyes. Stay awake.” Mark told me. They ran back to Mech X4. We got inside Mech X4. Mark, Harris and Spyder took me to the med-bay and Ryan started taking us back to the ferry. Spyder placed me on the bed.   
“Okay, so this is gonna be painful and this will either cure or kill you.” Harris said.   
“Excuse me?!” I asked. Harris injected me with the anesthesia  
“Okay, now count backwards from 10 so I know when you’re asleep.” Harris told me.   
“I hate math.” I said drowsily before falling asleep.   
When I woke up, I saw Harris, Mark, Ryan and Spyder talking and icing their injuries. Ryan and Mark were having some cute brotherly moment.   
“I’d hate to interrupt this, but I’m back!” I said. They all looked at me and I just shrugged.   
“Can you feel your toes?” Harris asked. I wiggled my toes and nodded, “Then the cure worked.” Harris was ecstatic. I tried to get up but Ryan pushed me back.   
“You have to rest for a couple days.” Harris told me.   
“No, I can get up.” I said simply. I stood up and wobbled on my feet for a little, “I’m gonna sit down. I sat on the bed.   
“We should get home, our mom’s gonna be worried.” Ryan said. I got up slowly and we all left the robot.


	3. Episode 2

Ryan, Mark and I were face timing Mark’s dad. He had really taken to me. I guess I was now part of the family.  
“And then out of nowhere, sandstorm!” Ryan’s dad said  
“That sounds awful, Mr. Walker.” I commented  
“But you’re okay, right?” Mark asked  
“You know me, just trying to keep the sand out of my hair.” He said. We all laughed.   
“I have to go finish prepping my presentation for today’s assembly, so I’ll see you guys.” I said, waving goodbye. I went inside, said goodbye to Grace, who was leaving and finished prepping my presentation on the computer. I put on my high-heeled ankle boots and walked up to where Ryan and Mark were, when I got a splitting headache. I gasped and fell to the ground. I saw a shark monster thingy stealing the giant monster heart, which was located in the bay. Oh my fucking god, the monster heart is located in the bay. I saw Grey with the monster heart and her eye was weird. It was a sensory overload. The shark came at me and I opened my eyes and saw a blue sky above me. I groaned  
“Liz!” I felt someone shaking me. I sat up

“What happened?” I asked.   
“You fell to the ground, screaming and clutching your head.” Ryan said  
“I screamed?” I said to myself.   
“What happened?” Ryan asked me  
“I-I had these visions. The monster heart is in the bay, and Grey’s going after it with a new monster.” I told them  
“Let’s get to school.” Mark said, and helped me up. 

*timeskip*

We were all in the robot and, by Harris’s orders, I was lying on the bed so he could scan me.   
“They were like the visions I got when Mech X4 tried to communicate with me, but way more intense.” I told them.   
“What did you see?” Spyder prompted  
“I saw a shark monster thingy stealing the giant monster heart, which was located in the bay. I saw Grey with the monster heart and her eye was really weird.” I told them  
“It’s possible the monster heart landed in the bay.” Harris said  
“So we amp up sub-mode and go after it.” I said  
“We don’t even know if the visions are real.” Mark said  
“Well, the last time I had visions, it was the robot.” I told them  
“We’re getting a new robot. I call technopath.” Spyder said.   
“That’s not how it works.” I told him.  
“So if the visions are right, that means Grey’s creating a new monster.” Mark said  
“Yea, but she only did that for Harper and he’s um… you know.” Spyder trailed off.  
“I get it, he’s dead. Thanks to us. No need to censor it.” I muttered bitterly  
“We are not equipped to fight underwater.” Harris said  
“So you and Leo update it!” I snapped  
“Texting Leo.” Harris said  
“How are we gonna find the monster heart we don’t ev-” I interrupted Mark  
“Harper Futuristics. We go there, find the metals and leave.” I told them  
“Okay, but for the record, if we get a new robot I get to drive.” Spyder said  
“NO! No you don’t! You would get us all killed, besides, you don’t even have the power to control this robot.” I scoffed and we left.   
“Words do hurt.” He muttered.

*timeskip*

We turned off the invisibility function on our Mech-Links.   
“I miss the smaller Mech Links.” Spyder complained  
“Did you miss the fact they were packed with Harper technology and he was most likely monitoring everything we did?” I asked.   
“Yeah, but I could stream my Peruvian Soap Operas.” Spyder retorted, almost yelling.   
“Keep your voice down.” I told him.   
“Look whatever went down between the two of you can be resolved in your own time. Right now let’s focus on the mission. Where can we find the designs?” Ryan asked  
“Well, we could start at the secret level.” Mark said  
“Right, there should be a secret elevator somewhere here.” I told them.   
“i got this.” Ryan said. His eyes flashed and the elevator opened. We crowded into the elevator. We got out of the elevator and saw a room with a bunch of data.   
“Welcome, to the data vault.” I told them. “Hundreds upon thousands of files right here. Each tube contains several hundred data cores with irreplaceable data on it. That there is the central computer.” I told them  
“How do you know about this.” Ryan asked  
“I did some sneaking around behind my dad’s back. He doesn’t want me in here but here we are.” I told them  
“Didn’t.” Spyder said  
“Excuse me?”   
“You said doesn’t. Your dad is dead so the correct grammatical term would be didn’t.” I gave him a shocked look. Since when does Spyder correct grammar?! “I’ve been paying attention during your tutoring sessions.” He told me. We all jumped back as the power source started shooting off beams of electricity.   
“And now I know why he doesn’t want me coming here.” I murmured  
“Don’t worry I can control it… I think.” Ryan muttered the last part. We went up to the computer and Ryan sent the information to his computer. I started looking at the different data when I accidentally pressed something and data pulled up.   
“Technopath test subjects.” I read off the screen  
“Hold on, let me.” Ryan said. He tried to get through with his powers, it didn’t work.   
“It’s protected.” I said, speaking the obvious  
“Then we take the data core to the robot.” Mark said. Spyder patted my back.   
“Don’t touch me!” I recoiled away from his touch. He said something while I tried cracking into the data core.   
“Lizzy, turn around.” Ryan said. I turned. There were several people with weapons.   
“YOU! You’re the ones who destroyed Harper. You ruined everything, well now you’re gonna pay.” Morris said  
“Morris? It’s me, Elizabeth. Remember. Your boss’s daughter. He wouldn’t want you to hurt me.” I played the diplomat  
“It doesn’t matter what he wanted because now he’s dead. And you, you’re gonna pay.” He said.   
“Guess we’re doing this the hard way.” I muttered. “You guys, grab the data core.” “What about you?” Ryan asked  
“I’m sending these bitches to hell.” I told them. I grabbed my knives and went at them. It was a flurry of limbs, knives, nunchucks and those spikey ball things. I was fending them off pretty well. Two members went away from the general fight and headed towards Ryan and Mark. I was able to knock the people attacking me unconscious. I surveyed the fight and saw a couple guards approaching Spyder. He couldn’t fend them off because he was retrieving the data core. I ran to where he was. One of the guards went for a blow that may have killed him, but I intercepted it.   
“Hi Todd!” I said cheerfully, dodging his hits, stabbing and slashing. I knocked him out and went to face the other guard. “Honestly, I don’t understand why you guys don’t attack while my back is turned. You’d get rid of me a lot faster.” I said, way too happily. The guard looked confused. I sent a kick to his stomach, but it made him madder. Another three guards came at me.   
“You’re not getting out of this alive. There are 4 of us and one of you.” One of the guards said  
“Better odds than normal.” I stated and went to attacking them. One of them caused my glasses to shatter. Great, now I’m blind! Not really. It’s just really blurry. I stabbed one of the guards in the stomach, wrapped his nunchucks around him and knocked him out. Three guards left. I knocked another one out by hitting one of the nerves in his neck. The two guards came at me in opposite directions. I jumped and landed on the ceiling in a Spiderman-esque move. The guards stopped just in time, looking at each other. They were close enough. I dropped down, rotated my body mid-air and my feet landed on their heads, causing them to crash to the ground. I grinned, and my grin faltered almost immediately.   
“I’m stuck!” Spyder said. Ryan was causing the electrical stuff in this room to go crazy. I dropped down to where Spyder was.   
“Okay, I’m gonna grab the data core, while you pull your arm out and I want you to keep the tube up.” I told him. I stuck my arm in the tube and grabbed the data core while Spyder pulled his arm out. I ripped the data core out and slowly got my arm down and out.   
“Take this, and don’t drop it!” I told him and handed him the core. I went back to rejoin the fight. The fan then sped up. I screamed as it almost got me. I grabbed onto a tube to hold myself down. One of the guards ran up to me and tried prying my fingers off when he nearly got sucked in too and grabbed onto a different core. I was channeling all my strength into holding onto the core. I screamed as I lost hold.   
“NO!” Ryan yelled. He shot a bolt of electricity at the fan, shutting it off. I fell to the ground, right in front of the fan. I decided to lay on the floor for a bit, regaining a bit of energy. I heard a punch. Ryan, Mark and Spyder surrounded me.   
“Are you okay.” Ryan asked, as he helped me up.  
“I mean, apart from a near death experience, I’d say I’m fine. The data core?” I asked  
“Busted.” Ryan said. Spyder grabbed a pair of goggles  
“I need a new pair of glasses.” I sighed  
“I knew something was different about you.” Mark said. We left the room  
“Harris says they’re working on the sub upgrade and” I gasped suddenly as visions took over my mind. I saw the shark and the monster heart. My mind flashed between images. My mind suddenly went blank and I opened my eyes.   
“The monster’s in the bay.” I said

*timeskip*

“Harris, you ready?” Mark asked  
“Yup! Just in the nick of time, son!” Harris chimed in over the intercom.  
“Full steam ahead.” Leo said  
“Closing in on your position now!” Harris told us. I had started writing in my song book again.   
“Alright, let’s do this!” Ryan said. I put down my book and made sure all my weapons were online.   
“He’s always saying let’s do this, have you noticed that?” Leo asked. That just killed the vibe.  
“Yea, it pumps up the team.” Harris said  
“True.” I commented  
“Plus Spyder has the attention span of a squirrel and Lizzy is writing in her songbook any free moment, kinda annoying actually like we get it you got into this school, congrats,” Mark and Ryan started laughing, “so you gotta let em know when its time to ‘do this’ otherwise…”  
“Guys, we can hear you.” Spyder said  
“You. Are. Dead.” I emphasized each word.   
“Let’s do this!” Leo said, trying to make up for it. We jumped into the water and merged with the sub-mode.   
“Submarine locked in.” Mark said  
“It feels like I’m wearing a giant backpack that’s sticking to my back.” I shuddered, not a good feeling.   
“Torpedoes! We got torpedoes.” Spyder said  
“That you can’t activate without my help.” I told Spyder. After the school incident, any weapons relating to missiles, plasma, and drills (basically all the exploding weapons) needed my permission to activate.   
“Oh, oh but Elizabeth we have more than one torpedo.” Spyder said, using may full name to piss me off. Yea there’s a reason nicknames exist.  
“I have nicknames for a reason.” I muttered. Harris approached through the elevator.   
“Everything’s linked up and Leo’s monitoring the sub-system.” Harris said  
“Everything is fully integrated with Mech X4.” Ryan said  
“Bringing up our new sonar tracking system. I just need the designs for the monster heart.” Harris said  
“Great I’m gonna sleep until we get there.” I told everyone and promptly fell asleep.  
“WAKE UP!” I heard Spyder scream in my ear. I hit a button.   
“Bam, torpedoes authorized, good night.” I said drowsily. 

“It’s dodging our torpedoes.” Ryan said. “It’s coming right at us, hang on.” I used my arms to cover my face. The monster just stopped.   
“Maybe it’s friendly.” I muttered sarcastically.  
“You know what, I’m sorry I shot at you.” Spyder said, sincerely. I facepalmed. That’s when the monster blasted us with its sonar. I held on for dear life to my chair.   
“Now I’m up.” I muttered  
“nOT SoRrY! NoT SOrRy aT aLL.” Spyder yelled as we tumbled back.   
“Where’s the monster?” Ryan asked  
“Back to grabbing the heart, most likely.” I muttered  
“It can dodge our torpedoes, it’s faster than anything we’ve gone up against.” Spyder said  
“Then we have to get close to it. I upgraded my suit so I can breathe underwater, if we have some sort of arm cannon, for defense, I can distract it so you guys can kill it.” I said  
“I’m not letting you die.” Spyder protested.   
“Why do you care again?” I scoffed. Harris handed me an arm cannon.  
“I don’t so go ahead, die for all I care” Spyder said  
“Wow, bipolar much.” I muttered  
“Be careful.” Ryan told me. I nodded and left. I swam to where the shark was and blasted it to get its attention. It started swimming at me and started getting ready to do its sonic thingy so I held up my hands and created a shield around me. I blasted the shark again and manipulated the water to create a mini hurricane around the shark, meaning it would have trouble breathing. Then Mech X4 used its drill to kill it. It wasn’t much of a battle but it was fun. I swam back inside the robot.   
“Hi…” I said.   
“Good job.” Harris commented  
“Yea, how long till we get back up, I have an audition for the school’s production of Teen Beach 2 in like 20 minutes for Mack, and I wanna get the part and can’t be late.” I told Ryan  
“Let’s go then.” Ryan said and we headed for the surface. Spyder Mark Harris and I finished cracking the data core and I still had like 10 minutes.   
“And done…” I said, putting down my welding torch.   
“You guys.” I cut Ryan off  
“Did this for you now I gotta go.” I said and ran out of the robot hoping to make it to the auditions on time.


	4. Auditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea I'm doing a little auditions thing because why not! You can skip this chapter if you want but it like introduces a couple characters that don't really become important... so yea.

I made it into the audition room five minutes late. I sat down and started mentally preparing myself. 

"Liza." Veracity asked

"Ver! What are you doing here?" I was shocked "Are you auditioning? That seems a little out of character."

"No I am not auditioning. I'm on stage crew and I'm also helping cast." Veracity told me, "You're auditioning for Mack, right?" She asked. I nodded. "Well after you, we have one more for Brady and then we post the list."

"Veracity! We need you to help cast come on." One of the girls said and ushered Veracity into the practice room. 

"Elizabeth Harper. You're up." The same girl said. I nodded and followed her. 

"Okay, so I'm auditioning for Mack so do I read from the script first or sing or what." I asked.

"Sing first." They told me. I nodded

"I thought you were my fairy-tale

My dream when I'm not sleepin'

A wish upon a star that's comin' true

But everybody else could tell

That I confused my feelings with the truth

When there was me and you, whoa

I swore I knew the melody

That I heard you singin'

And when you smiled, you made me feel

Like I could sing along

But then you went and changed the words

Now my heart is empty

I'm only left with used-to-be's

And once upon a song

Now I know you're not a fairy-tale

And dreams are meant for sleepin'

And wishes on a star just don't come true

'Cause now, even I can tell

That I confused my feelings with the truth

Because I liked the view

When there was me and you" I finished softly. they clapped. 

"Alright now the break up between Mack and Brady." Someone said. Veracity opened up her script too. 

"Mack, what's going on?" Veracity asked me

"Brady where were you? It's over." I recited from memory, trying to get into character as much as possible. 

"You could've at least shot me a text." Veracity said monotone. 

"I did, twelve." I said, sounding exasperated.

"No you didn't"

"Check you phone." I told her, really getting into character and trying to 'embody' Mack and her emotions. The scene continued for quite some time. (Look I don't feel like writing the whole thing)

"Stop."One of the girls called, "That was amazing. I can confidently say you were the best one yet. Rehearsals are every day at lunch starting tomorrow. Next!" Someone called. 

I was waiting in the room for the cast list to be posted because why not. A boy came out of the audition room looking nervous and he was followed by the directors. The cast list was posted. I read it out loud since I was in front. The boy playing Brady was named Evan. The girl playing Lela was named Ella and the boy playing Tanner was named Harry.

"Hi I'm Evan, I'm gonna be playing Brady. You're pretty, not that I would judge you on looks because I am certain you are an amazing girl both inside and out but uh I figured since we're gonna be playing love interests or whatever, you'd wanna go on a date with me. Not a date date considering we just met but like one where its just the two of us and we get to know each other." He tried explaining. 

"I'd love that." I said smiling. You know what, maybe it's time I move on from Spyder. 

"Great, uh does tomorrow work?" He asked

"Come to 23750 Wallace Street and we can hang out at my place and rehearse and stuff." I told him. He nodded and gave me his phone number and I grabbed my stuff. Veracity approached me. 

"So, you hit it off with the guy playing Brady, huh." She said

"Yea, he's kinda cute when I think about it." I said grinning. 

"Okay, so you're cool kissing him at the end of the movie." She said and I did a double take

"Excuse me?" I asked

"Well we modified the ending so when you say 'I'm Mack' Brady's gonna say 'I know' and he's gonna kiss you and the movie will end." She told me. 

"OH! I should go now." I said my voice rising and left.


	5. Episode 3

I was rehearsing my lines over the phone with Ella, Evan and Harry while in Mech X4. Actually it was more like we were rehearsing and joking around.   
“What are you doing.” Spyder asked me  
“Rehearsing my lines and doing something productive with why time unlike you.” I said  
“You’re always doing that, live a little.” He told me  
“I am living. I am having fun.”  
“With them. Are they your friends.”“why do you sound so surprised. I do have a life and it doesn’t revolve around you Ryan Harris and Mark.” I snapped.   
“Are you okay?” Harry asked hesitantly.  
“Okay… should we watch varsity tryouts and rehearse in person?” Ella asked  
“Yup.”“See you”“Gladly” We signed off and I left. 

*timeskip*

We were chanting the songs underneath our breath so it probably looked like a cult on the bleachers when Ryan and Spyder came in and sat next to us. Ryan gave a short wave and they waved back and ignored Spyder. These kids are amazing.   
“So you’re the kids my sister’s been hanging out with, and you’re the guy who has to kiss her.” Ryan said slightly protectively.   
“Hang on, you two are related.” Ella asked  
“Long story and yes we’re twins.” I said  
“Ryan, that’s Harry Ella and Evan. Guys, that’s Ryan.”“Aren’t you gonna introduce me?” Spyder asked. I ignored him and we went back to practicing when out of the corner of my eye it looked like Mark was flying. That idiot must’ve put gravity pucks in Mark’s shoes. 

*timeskip to lunch*

We were rehearsing the choreo and singing in the computer lab.  
“I make my own destiny… Dancing and a howling shaking and a shouting, overflowing like a soda fountain, moving and a grooving everything is new and, I take your hand and I dance with you let me show you how we do ooh oooh.” I sang and stumbled and tripped, landing right in Evan’s arms, cliche I know.   
“Would you call me cliche if I said something about you falling for me.” He asked me, smiling.   
“Alright, let’s run that one more time.” The director, who’s name was Juliet by the way, “Lizzy, you need to stop tripping over your own two feet. Lunch break everyone.” The director called and everyone left except for Evan.   
“You should go to lunch.” I told him.   
“Without you?” He asked me  
“I uh… I’m not hungry.” I fibbed. I was starving but I felt like something was wrong downstairs and wanted to avoid it. Cowardly? yes. But was I tired as hell thanks to Mark’s snoring? Also yes. He shrugged and left me when Veracity, Spyder and Harris burst in.   
“Hi…” I asked  
“Oh right, drama club meeting.” Veracity said. I noticed the data core in her hands.   
“Why do you have our data core?” I asked suspiciously  
“Harris locked it, remember?” She told me. I nodded realizing they had lied to her. Then the emergency lights turned on. I cautiously opened the door and looked outside. One of the jocks came hurtling at me and I quickly closed the door. He looked infected by the ooze.   
“Is everything okay?” Veracity asked  
“What do you define as oka - AHHHHH” I screamed as the guy who was outside, his hands burst through the door and grabbed either side of my ribcage. Harris, Veracity and Spyder started trying to pry the hands off me.   
“What is up with this guy, is he like a zombie or something?” Veracity asked, “How are you so calm?” She asked Harris  
“Panic does no good in a time like this.” Harris said.  
“HURRY UP HuRRY Up!” I screamed  
“We need a couple weapons.” Harris said.   
“Uh what do we have. Two umbrellas with metal tips.” Veracity exclaimed  
“Motherboards.” Harris said.   
“Multiple laptop batteries.” Veracity grabbed them and put them with the other stuff.   
“Duct Tape.” Spyder said. They started assembling the weapons while I tried to get rid of the zombie dude.   
“Three, two one.” I yelled and burst free, while Harris and Spyder zapped the guy.  
“Okay, give me one of those.” I told Harris and he handed me his. “Let’s clear a path and get to Ryan and Mark.” I told them.   
“We gotta get the police.” Veracity said while running. We started running further into the school, “Hey the exit’s this way.” She told us  
“And our friends are this way.” I told her while running off. We found Ryan and Mark cornered and I did the obvious. I started blasting the students with my umbrella machine and so did Spyder. We cleared a path to Ryan and Mark.   
“Why is every school a death trap?” I asked  
“Harris, any ideas?” Ryan asked. Spyder and I started blasting the students with our beams of electricity but they were closing in on us. Then my machine stopped working.   
“Damnit!” I yelled and started hitting it, nothing! Plasma time. I started shooting plasma out of my hands instead, enough so it wouldn’t kill them but it would keep them back.   
“A plan, please!” I yelled at Mark, Harris and Ryan.   
“Yea, no guys take your time, nothing going on here except blasting my fellow students.” Spyder said  
“Alright you two, plow the road.” Harris said, “Uh what happened to your machine?”   
“It stopped working, so I resorted to plasma, don’t worry it won’t kill them. Hopefully.” I added on at the end while blasting the students, creating a wide path.   
“HOPEFULLY?!” Harris yelled.   
“yea, where to?” I asked  
“Blast freezer in the cafeteria.” Mark said. Spyder and I ran ahead blasting students.   
“Okay, I will guard the entrance and you guys get that hair sample.” I told them. They went inside and I started blasting the students back. After a couple seconds, they retreated and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then one grabbed me. It was zombie Evan.   
“Evan? Evan. It’s me, Lizzy. The girl you took on a date 5 times,” Long story don’t ask, “It’s me.” That didn’t do anything and my hands were pinned to my side. I didn’t wanna kill him or hurt him. Fuck my life, I’m in love again. Harris, Spyder, Ryan and Mark burst out of the freezer.   
“You can treat him with ice and cold!” Harris told me. I nodded and summoned ice to my hands and let it cover his body. He went stiff. I thawed him slightly, wiggled out of his grip and left.   
“alright, Lizzy, you’re with me and Spyder.” I nodded and we ran outside. Ryan, Spyder and I ran to a deserted area near the school lot and huddled together.   
“Three…two…one.” Ryan said and the robot whooshed us up to the control room. I ran to my station and started arming ice balls.   
“Charging cold cannon.” Spyder said. “I’m armed and the school’s completely empty.” I told them.   
“Mech Xecute.” Ryan said. We started blasting the school. I aimed individual ice balls and Ryan and Spyder swept the general area.   
“And… done!” I cheered  
“Sweet! No more ooze zombies.” Spyder cheered

*timeskip to the next day*

“Hey Veracity!” I called. She was handing Harris the data core. She waved and approached me.  
“Hey, um… you’re friends with Lily right?” She asked me  
“Yes…why?” I asked warily  
“She’s gay, right?” She asked me again  
“Bi.” I corrected  
“Could you maybe introduce me to her. I mean, like you don’t have to but like if you wanna.” Veracity told me. I gasped and grinned.   
“OMIGOSH! YESSSSS! Okay, we have gym first and we’re doing the mile run, so you two can be partners. Don’t worry, she likes you too. I mean she’s been asking me to introduce you to her but every time I try, something gets in the way, so yes I will introduce her. You two are my OTP!” I assured her and squealed. Veracity rolled her eyes.  
“I should’ve asked someone else.” She muttered. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to where Lily was.   
“Hey Lizzy. Oh, h-hi Veracity.” She stuttered out, her voice cracking on hi.   
“Yo.” Veracity said  
“Veracity, Lily. Lily, Veracity. I thought you guys would hit it off, you know since the both of you practically begged me to introduce you to the other, not really.” I noticed them glaring at me and I gulped, “I’m gonna go now.” I smiled and ran away. I bumped into Evan.   
“Oh hi.” I said quickly.   
“Hey, you have gym first, right?” I nodded. “Great, can we be partners for the mile run, assuming you don’t have one?” He asked me. I nodded again and we went to gym. 

*timeskip again*

We were hanging out in the robot afterschool. Mark put his shoes with the gravity pucks, as I later found out, into the drawer where we keep the larger gravity pucks. I was going through the different technopath test subjects thanks to Veracity. I was looking for anyone that bore some similarities to either me or Ryan, but I wasn’t paying too much attention.   
“Who are they?” Ryan asked.


	6. Episode 4

“is that him?” I asked Leo. Ryan and I were trying to find our birth parents  
“No.” Leo stated  
“Okay… is that him?” Ryan asked moving onto the next one.   
“No.”   
“Okay, here’s an idea, I have morning practice in 10 minutes for the play so Ryan just start flipping through and Leo will say stop when he sees him.” I told them. Ryan started flipping through the test subjects.   
“Wait! That’s him that’s your father! Go back!” Leo told Ryan.   
“Subject 240. We found him!” I cheered  
“or Randy to his friends. And always with that infectious smile.” Leo told us.   
“That’s our father. So when can we meet him?” I asked Leo.   
“Harper spent a lot of resources tracking him down.” Leo told us.   
“So find his last alibi and track it, please. Oh shoot,” I mumbled checking the time, “I’m gonna be late again!”   
“We can get there in no time with Mech X4.” I nodded. Since I had lost my ability to fly in the battle with Harper, along with my super speed, I needed like 10-15 minutes to get anywhere within like 3 miles of the robot. 

*timeskip*

“Hey guys.” I said, walking in. They waved.   
“OKay, so today we’re running through the kiss scene. Sidenote, Juliet couldn’t make it today, so I’ll be running it.” Veracity said.   
“Hold up! Kiss scene.” Ella asked  
“Between Lizzy and Evan. If someone’s not comfortable with it, walk it off, we got a show to do.” Veracity said. “It’s the end of that’s how we do. Take your places and go.” Veracity said.   
“That’s how we do.” We all sang and Evan dipped me.   
“I’m Mack.” I said, smiling.   
“I know!” He told me. Then we kissed. His lips were soft against mine. We broke apart and I swung my legs over the platform the two of us were standing on.   
“Class time.” Veracity said as the bell rang. We all left the room. Veracity walked with me to class when we saw Harris and Spyder.   
“Is that Spyder jumping the school on a bike?” I asked, looking at the iPad.   
“I have dreams. They’re small and unimportant but they’re my dreams.” Spyder said  
“Well it looks like you need to increase your angle of departure.” I told him.   
“So many big words.” Spyder said  
“She’s saying build a ramp, which is smart.” Veracity said  
“It’s too dangerous.” Harris protested  
“He could die. I say do it.” I mused. I got a text from Evan and I smiled. 

Phone:

So my mom got four tickets to Hamilton. Lily’s gonna ask Veracity to be her date. Do you wanna be mine? ❤️

Ohmigosh! Ur joking right? I’ve been wanting to see Hamilton for a while!

Nope! Not joking. So is that a yes?

That’s a definite YES!  
____________________________________________________________________________________

“What’s wrong?” Veracity asked me  
“Evan asked me to go see Hamilton with him!” I squealed.   
“Who’s Evan?” Spyder asked  
“You remember. Tall, cute, dark haired boy. Plays Brady.” I told him.   
“Btw, the weather should be clear on Saturday for your jump thing. Let’s go.” Veracity said, pulling me away when Ryan grabbed my arm.   
“Seriously guys!” I complained.  
“I need you to come with me.” Ryan told me  
“No can do, skater boy! I need to help you pick out an outfit for your date.” She told me.   
“Date?” I asked sceptically, “We’re just going to see Hamilton.”   
“It may not be a date to you, but it’s a date to him, so you’re gonna need my help!” She told me.   
“I’ll send you potential outfit choices, but I should go with Ryan.” I told Veracity. She nodded and left.   
“i saw Harper’s ghost in the robot.” Ryan told us. I nodded and stopped dead in my tracks. The others were walking away without noticing. I saw my dad. I gasped in shock. Everyone either had a free period or was in class. I was one of those few who had a free period so no one was around.   
“Dad.” I mumbled.   
“Ne-ne-ne-euro-euro-euro-spl-spl-spl-spl-euro-euro-ne-ne-ice-ice-ice-spl-spl-spl-spl-er-er-er” He said, glitching in and out. A wave of fury came over me and I punched ‘him’, only to fall to the ground, scraping my hands.  
“Dammit!” I almost screamed, furious tears were going down my face. “Dammit.” I almost screamed again. I picked myself up and went to an isolated area of the school. Tears were still running down my face as I tried to process what had just happened. So my dad had appeared and given me a message, but disappeared when I tried to punch him. I opened my backpack and started scribbling down what I remembered of the message. I tried to piece together the pieces. “Neurosplicer.” I mumbled. I half zipped my backpack and ran through the school trying to find Ryan and Harris.   
“Guys. Harper. Message. Vision. Ghost. Neurosplicer.” I quickly said and shoved the piece of paper into Harris’s hands.   
“We can deal with this after.” Harris said, sounding mildly annoyed and crumpled up the piece of paper. “Right now we have to figure out what the messages from Harper mean.” I threw my hands up in annoyance and stormed away. I sat down in the music room on the drumset, put on some headsets and started hitting the drums to release anger. After about five minutes, I broke my drumsticks and put my head in my hands. Spyder entered and cautiously approached me.   
“Hey.” I told him  
“You missed our optional gym class.” He told me.   
“It’s optional for a reason.” I sighed.   
“Why are you miserable?” He asked me.   
“I’m not. I’m just in shock from seeing my dad. I put together a message that may have been what my dad was trying to say, but Harris crumpled it up.” I told him. “Wait! Why am I telling you this?” I scoffed.   
“So you’re still upset with me.” He asked me, but it was more of a statement.   
“You broke up with me for no reason, so yea, I’m pretty upset.” I told him.  
“Sorry.” He muttered.   
“I’m gonna go get ready for my date with Evan.” I said, getting up.   
“Date??” He asked  
“We’re gonna go see Hamilton. The tickets are like hella expensive and it would be rude to stand him up.” I told Spyder.   
“But what about-”   
“The visions. It’ll be fine. You guys will solve it and I’ll be rapping the lyrics to satisfied.” I told him and left the room. 

(So yea. I don’t feel like doing the neurosplicer thingy) 

I was at home (technically Ryan’s home, but I live there now so yay) sending pictures of my outfit to Veracity. She approved of the oversized Hamilton hoodie with ripped jeans. My hair in two dutch braids. I had just finished changing when Veracity called me.   
“LILYASKEDMETOGOWITHHERTOHAMILTONWITHYOUGUYSONADOUBLEDATEANDIJUST” she said in a rush  
“Yea, I know. So you almost ready?” Someone rang the doorbell. “Gotta go. See you at the theatre.” I told her. I opened the door and saw Evan with some flowers made of paper   
“Hi.” He said and handed me the flowers.   
“So what books did you use to make these?” I asked  
“Twilight. The pages I didn’t use, I burned.” He told me. I nodded.   
“I’m gonna go put these in my room, do want anything?” I asked him. He shook his head. I ran up to my room, put the flowers on my vanity and quickly ran back downstairs. Evan was standing by the door.   
“Ready to go?” He asked. I nodded. We both climbed into the backseat. His mom was driving us. I could see the top of her head. She was blond. Evan put on guns and ships from Hamilton.   
“I swear to god, anyone who can rap this evenly is amazing.” He told me  
“You’re about to be amazed. I’m takin this horse by the reins makin’ Redcoats redder with bloodstains And I’m never gonna stop until I make ‘em Drop and burn ‘em up and scatter their remains, I’m Watch me engagin’ em! Escapin’ em! Enragin’ em! I’m—mmmmmphhhhh” I was cut off abruptly by tape going over my mouth.   
“Sorry about this but you really should be more careful about who you trust.” Evan told me. I glared at him. “I don’t think you need these.” Evan said, grabbing my glasses and snapping them in half. I wasn’t in fighting gear. I didn’t have my high heel knives or my suit. I was going to watch Hamilton! I wasn’t planning on being assassinated at the theatre like Lincoln. We parked and his ‘mom’ turned around. It was Grey. Then I was knocked out.   
I woke up tied to a pole behind bars. Evan was outside the bars.   
“Oh you’re awake. I texted your ‘friends’ and they’re on their way to rescue you, but don’t worry, we’ll be ready for them.” He told me  
“So I’m the bait. Huh, figures.” I muttered. “You actually think they’re gonna risk their lives for me? HAHAHAHA” I started laughing.   
“Shut up!” He yelled and somehow slapped me. Like he didn’t actually touch me but I felt it.  
“They’re not gonna come for me. Your entire plan will fail, just like your grades.” I told him.   
“Consider yourself thankful we didn’t inject you with ooze.” He growled before leaving. I smirked. 

*timeskip*

I was bloody and bruised. Turns out my sarcastic remarks did not help my case. Who would’ve thought! I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be Ryan, Mark, Spyder and… Harper?!  
“What’s he doing here?” I asked, jerking my head in the direction of Harper.  
“Chill, he’s going to jail. We need to get you out of here.” Ryan said  
“Well that may be hard considering Evan melted the key.” I muttered.   
“Evan?!” Mark asked  
“Long story. Get me out of here.” I asked. Ryan took out his Mech Link and cut a hole in the bars and cut my handcuffs. I stumbled out of the cell.   
“Going somewhere?” Evan asked appearing in front of us.   
“So what I’m gathering from all this is you’re not human or…” I trailed off. “Okay bye!” I yelped and started sprinting out of the bunker. The others caught up with me and we scrambled out.  
“Hey guys, come on, were on the same side.” Harper protested as Ryan forced him forwards. “The lesser of two evils-“  
“Is still evil!” I cut Harper off.   
“Yea, either learn Spanish or study algebra both tutored by Lizzy. I refuse to learn, I choose neither thus I win.” Spyder said  
“Harris.” I gasped, noticing him on the ground.   
“You okay?” Mark asked, Ryan and Spyder helped him up.  
“She got the drop on me, Ry. I’m sorry, I tried everything-” Harris sad, sadly. I then heard stomping and turned around.   
“Well fuck.” I muttered  
“RUN!” Spyder yelled  
“I’m too talented to die!” Harris yelled  
“I don’t think the monster cares.” I yelled back. I pushed Spyder out of the way of the monster’s legs and it stomped on my foot instead. Spyder and Mark helped me up and we bolted. We all gathered in a group and Ryan did the thing with the robot and we got inside. Harper screamed  
“What was that?” He asked us  
“Elevator.” I winced in pain. I was pretty sure my bones in my foot were shattered. Spyder helped me sit down at my station and Mark tied up Harper.  
“Alright. Let’s squish this thing. What’s spiders weakness?” Ryan asked  
“School.” I said simply.   
“Ha ha.” Ryan said sarcastically.  
“Sorry, not sorry. Here it comes.” I yelled. Harris put up the shields and the monster knocked us backwards. Ryan brought us back up and did a couple flips. Spyder and I shot various strength missiles and fireballs at the monster. The monster was fine  
“That should’ve killed it!” I complained  
“Yea, it’s part spider part rhino. I call it arachna-rhino.” Harper stated  
“I name the monsters around here.” Spyder said  
“Stop being nice to the sociopath.” Mark and I said at the same time. Spyder just shrugged. The monster turned around so we were facing its rear end.   
“It’s twerking! Why is it twerking?” Spyder asked  
“Oh my god, that’s disgusting.” I shuddered. It then shot a bunch of web at us, pinning the robot’s arm to the side, he then shot more web and pinned the other arm. And then we were tied up.   
“I can’t operate my weapons!” I told Ryan  
“Me neither!” Spyder said.   
“I will not be able to unsee this.” Harris muttered  
“We have to burn through this.” I said. I got up and hopped to the side harness.   
“X-weapon.” Ryan said  
“Ready?” I called  
“Ready!” Harper responded along with the others. We looked at him weirdly  
“What?” He asked  
“Guys, I’m with you, we’re Mech X6 now.” We all protested against this. We used the X-weapon to burn through the webbing. I focused my power and energy into the wave of heat and light coming from my chest. The monster turned to ooze. My harness lowered me to the ground and my feet touched the floor. I yelped in pain. I decided to just dangle in the harness for a little.   
“What about Grey?” Spyder asked  
“She’s gone and all I can find are traces of the red ooze.” Harris said.   
“Can someone help me?” I asked. Harris and Mark helped me limp to the med-bay. Harris did an X-ray and Spyder stood by while Ryan took us back to the ferry.   
“All your bones are broken in your foot. You’ll need surgery most likely. So lay back and uh… Spyder, give her a spoon of the medicine in the purple bottle. It’ll numb her senses.” Harris told Spyder. Spyder grabbed a spoon and poured the medicine into the it. He handed me the spoon and I quickly swallowed the medicine and wrinkled my nose. I couldn’t feel anything after that. I remember seeing Harris with a white robot that went into my foot and I remember seeing Spyder and Mark sitting next to me looking concerned but it was all a blur.   
I fully came to my senses a while after that. I slowly sat up.   
“What happened?” I asked to no one in particular  
“Well, Harris finished surgery on you a while and it’s my shift to watch over you.” Spyder said.   
“Yea well I’m fine. I’m going home.” I said. I slowly put weight on the ankle and winced.  
“Are you sure you don’t want help?” Spyder asked  
“Yea. Oh what am I gonna tell Grace?” I worried  
“Ryan texted me the excuse he gave. You were walking and you tripped over a tree root, spraining your ankle. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon in the woods trying to get you out. When we finally got you out, you went over to Harris’s and should be home in 10 minutes from now, so let’s go.” Spyder told me.


	7. Episode 5

Ryan and Leo were looking for our father while I was with the cast of the play trying to figure out who to replace Evan with. (He’d dropped out of school))  
“What about holding new auditions?” Ella suggested  
“We have a week till the final performance, there’s no way we could find someone to replace him in time!” I argued  
“We could push it back a couple weeks.” Harry suggested  
“No way! The show must go on!” Juliet declared  
“We need someone who knows this shit!” I said, “Hold up! I’ve been practicing with Spyder and Harris. And Spyder can sing, quite well I may add! I could potentially convince him!” Veracity and Juliet both nodded okaying my idea.   
“Oooooooh.” The rest of the room chorused  
“Oh grow up!” I snapped, slung my bag over my shoulder and went to go find Spyder. 

I walked into the robot and everyone was sitting on the couch.  
“Spyder! Gotta be me! Brady’s part! Go!” I told him quickly. He quickly started singing Brady’s part and I grinned.   
“Perfect! So you would say you know Brady’s part well, right?” I asked.   
“Yes… I’m starting to get nervous.”“Excellent. So you don’t mind filling in for Brady for the school play.” I told him.   
“Sure- Wait WHAT!”   
“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.” I said, “Alright what’s going on, Ryan? And what’s with the satellite thing?” I asked  
“Mark and Leo are Harper-proofing the place. We’re rescuing dad!” He told me.   
*timeskip*  
“Okay, I can see the mining company’s op centre! We’re almost there.” Harris said  
“Have you two figured out what you’re gonna say when you meet your dad?” Harris asked  
“I figured we’d get out of there alive first. And then say ‘Hi. I’m Lizzy and this is Ryan and we’re your children.’ Is that good?” I asked  
“We can’t reveal our identities! Harper’s back he could go after them!” Ryan said.   
“Yea, well let’s just rescue him or we won’t have a dad.” I muttered.   
“Hey do we have time to stop-” I cut Spyder off  
“NO!” I snapped  
“Lizzy calm down!” Harris told me.  
“Calm down.” I scoffed, “CaLm DoWN?! My dad could be dying inside a mine and I’m stressed as fuck. So no, Harris, I will not calm down!”“Alright we’re here!” Ryan said, trying to defuse the tension.  
“I’m picking up a signal, Harris tap into the feed.” I told them  
“Why me?” He asked. I glared at him, he gulped and started tapping into the feed. We saw someone looking on the camera.   
“It’s really him.” Ryan said. Then the ground under the robot shook.   
“It’s unstable. We have to get him out.” I said.  
“The mountain could collapse at any minute.” Harris told us  
“We have to move, now.” Ryan said  
“Harris, Spyder, you guys stay up here and keep it stable for as long as possible. Ryan, grab the gravity pucks, I got a bounce belt and we can go after dad and the other miners.” I told everyone.   
“The elevator is blocked.” Harris told us  
“Spyder, you’re gonna need to drill us an elevator shaft. Be careful.” I warned.   
“One wrong move and the mountain could cave in.”  
“Well aren’t you just a ray of sunshine.” I muttered.  
“Do you have any good news today.” Ryan asked  
“Um… I got my first chest hair.” Harris said  
“Woah.” Spyder said, clapping along  
“congrats.” Ryan said, clapping along  
“I wax like twice a month, what’s your point.” I scoffed. Ryan used the drill to create a hole.   
“Careful.” I said.   
“Almost through.” Ryan told us.   
“Slowly!” Harris called out.   
“We’re through!” Ryan exclaimed. I headed for the elevator with Ryan. “We’ve made an entrance. Keep it open while we go.” I said.   
“I could use shields.” Harris said  
“And I could blast debris so Lizzy doesn’t die!” Spyder exclaimed  
“I’m going down there too.” Ryan told Spyder. He chose not to respond.   
“Lez go. We don’t have all day.” I told Ryan. We went into the elevator and zipped down.   
“It’s gonna be dark, grab the X-goggles.” Harris told us.   
“Night vision.” I said.   
“But you where glasses.” Spyder said  
“Yea, so…” The elevator zipped shut and whooshed us down. We used a rope to slide down to the elevator. We opened the hatch and got into the elevator.   
“How’s it going?” Harris asked us.  
“Just going into an old abandoned mine shaft to rescue our dad. Same old same old.” I spoke into my Mech Link.   
“Ha ha.” Harris said dry. I smirked before I realized he couldn’t see me and just shrugged my shoulders. Ryan opened the hatch which I didn’t realize I was standing on and ungracefully fell into the elevator with a plop. I heard Harris and Spyder laughing at me, through the Mech Link.   
“Can you see us.” I asked.  
“Yup, there are cameras in the elevator. What a graceful fall.” Spyder snickered. I got up and brushed myself off.   
“Control panel’s busted.” Ryan said. “But then again…” he trailed off and his eyes flashed blue and did the technopath thing and we were cruising down the elevator shaft. Then we began to fall. I yelped in surprise and gripped the walls.   
“You’re moving kind of fast.” Harris told us.  
“Gee I wonder why. We’re in an old elevator that hardly works, wonder what could be happening?” I retorted  
“There have to be emergency brakes!” Ryan shouted. He removed his goggles and found them. “Found them!” He told us. We stopped and the bottom and we both tumbled out of the elevator and onto the floor. I groaned. Someone stood over us and it was our dad. Ryan got up and pulled me up.   
“Hi umm… sorry about that. We’re here to rescue you.” I said quickly  
“Aren’t you two a little young to be rescue workers?” Our dad asked  
“See we’re what do you call it”  
“Prodigies.” I supplied.   
“Right prodigies.” He continued. “We’re child prodigies and we specialize in digging and saving dudes.”   
“What my brother means to say is, we specialize in high-risk situations, like this.” I quickly said, trying to cover up Ryan’s flimsy lie.   
“Well, I could use all the help I can get.” Our dad said.   
“How long have you been down here?” I asked.  
“Almost a week. My family must be worried sick.” He has another family. Okay… that’s uh, that’s great. Good for him!  
“Yeah, uh must be tough. Family is… really important.” Ryan said. The mountain started rumbling.   
“We have to get everyone out of here!” I told him.   
“The rocks are too heavy to move.” He told us  
“No problem.” I said. I turned my heels into knives and turned on the bounce belt. Ryan used the gravity pucks.  
“No offence, little girl. I’m sure your knife skills are admirable, but you’re tiny, how are you gonna move all the rocks.” I just shrugged. In a whirlwind, I started chopping and slicing some of the softer rocks, clearing away half of the pile in three minutes.  
“That’s a new record.” I said, sheathing my knives. Ryan started using the gravity pucks to move rocks and I started lifting.   
“Amazing.” Our dad breathed.   
“Yea, well… it must be hard you know working such a dangerous job.” I told him.   
“uh… you mentioned you had a family.” Ryan said  
“A wife.” He said  
“No children?” Ryan pried. Our dad paused  
“No. No kids.” He finally said  
“oh… okay cool.” I muttered.   
“Are you okay? You seem like you have something on your mind.” He told me.   
“Just school stuff.” I fibbed and continued moving the rocks. Ryan and I moved a couple more rocks and the rock wall caved in, freeing the miners. We heard various shouts of joy.  
“Good news we found the miners.” Ryan said through the intercom. The place started rumbling again. I looked at a diagram and scanned the mountain.   
“The mountain’s losing it’s structural integrity. By freeing the miners we collapsed the one thing holding it up. We have to move. NOW!” I yelled. Ryan and I ushered everyone forwards.  
“Everyone to the elevator.” Ryan shouted. I stayed at the back and made sure everyone got in. Then I felt someone push me and I fell to the floor, a rock taking my place and falling on our dad’s leg. Ryan and I rushed towards him.   
“You don’t even know me.” He told us.  
“We do. I’m Ryan, that’s Elizabeth. We’re your children.” Ryan said. I quickly grabbed the rock and lifted it. Ryan helped our dad up and made it to the elevator. I dropped the rock and ran into the elevator just as the doors closed. Ryan pressed the up button and we went up. Then there was a thud and the elevator stopped.   
“Spyder, Harris, what’s going on?” I whispered through my Mech Link.   
“You’ll be fine. When defence doesn’t work, offence comes through.” Spyder told us  
“Are you insane. You could blow us all up.” I whisper-yelled at him.   
“There’s a chance of death either way, so really there’s no risk and no stakes.” He told us and signed off the Mech Link. Several thuds shook the mountains.   
“Got it!” Ryan said, apparently communicating with the others. His eyes flashed and we started moving up. Mech X4 placed us on concrete ground.   
“Are you okay?” I asked our dad  
“I’m fine what was that?” He asked  
“Long version or short version?” I asked  
“That!” Ryan said, and MechX4 became visible to him.   
“You see… we may pilot a giant robot with our friends. Ryan can control the robot and so can I but only to an extent and not as much as Ryan but I have random superpowers that only work half the time and the person who created that robot also helped us find you and we decided to rescue you and now you’re here and we’re here and that’s there.” I said in one breath.  
“you pilot that.” He said, in awe  
“Yea, pretty much.” I said. Ryan made the robot disappear again.   
“Thank you for saving our lives. Elizabeth. Not the name I would’ve chosen but still amazing.” He told me  
“What would you have chosen.” I was curious  
“Liz, maybe Lizzy. Eliza perhaps.” He said  
“Well those are my nicknames so congrats.” I said. He chuckled  
“I can’t wait to spend time with you two.”   
“You can’t. You remember Seth Harper, right. Well, now he’s back and he’s also my adoptive father but I hate him just as much as the rest of the team. See we thought we destroyed him but now he’s back. Then we had him in custody but he hurt Ryan and escaped and now may be after me and Ryan’s adoptive mom. So yea.” I finished, again in one breath.   
“The time we just had will have had to be enough.” He told us. We grinned and said good-bye and I wiped a stray tear away from my eye as the elevator whooshed us up.  
“Good job guys. Let’s get out of here.” I said, sitting down.   
“While you were down there, I grabbed a screenshot of the video feed.” Spyder said and pulled up an image of me, Ryan and our dad looking up at the video feed. I shot across the robot and gave Spyder a hug.   
“Thank you.” I told him.   
“Thanks man, that, that’s awesome.” Ryan said. Then Mark flashed up on our screen.   
“Guys, you’ve got to get back to Bay City. Oh are Spyder and Lizzy back together. I’m glad you worked up enough courage to finally ask her out again, man. You know Lizzy, just the other day Spyder was telling me how much he actually liked you and regretted breaking up with you. So glad you two are back together.” Mark said  
“We’re not together.” I said  
“You’re hugging.” He pointed out  
“Because he did something thoughtful and I’m human and have emotions.” I said, walking back to my seat.   
“We’re on our way.” Ryan said.   
When we arrived in Bay City, lights everywhere keep flickering on and off.   
“So something happened to the power grid. Is what I’m picking up.” I muttered  
“What happened?” Ryan asked


	8. Episode 6

“It’s insane out there. I’m tracking energy signals right now.” I told everyone. Mark whooshed up through the elevator.  
“Any theories?” Ryan asked  
“No. Leo’s still trying to figure it out.” Mark told us  
“Could it be Grey or Harper?” I asked  
“Or it could be a squirrel. They nibble on a few powerlines and BOOM!” We all jumped. “city-wide blackout.” Spyder said  
“Spyder could be right. It might not be Grey.” Harris said.   
“‘Spyder could be right.’ So, this, um, this is what dignity feels like. It’s okay.” Spyder concluded. There was a noise outside and all of the city’s power just poof. Gone!   
“Alright, I’m pulling up energy readings and there’s one house that appears to have energy.” I said, typing on my computer.   
“That’s Veracity’s house.” Harris said  
“How do you know her address off the bat? I’ve gone to her house multiple times and it took me a couple minutes to recognize that.” I said, suspiciously.  
“Super creepy.” Spyder said, in agreement.   
“Her house has more power than any building in the city.” Harris said, ignoring us.   
“Okay, so you guys go there and see why her house has more power.” Ryan said  
“Are we sure Harris should go?” I asked  
“He and Veracity are a few weapons away from a duel to the death.” Spyder said  
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a duel. I’d be Veracity’s second. But she would destroy you.” I told Harris  
“We work together when we have to. We’re frenemies, you guys get that.” Harris said.   
“Your name in her contacts is far from friends.” I told him.   
“We go to the power plant and see if Grey’s still there.” Ryan told us and we all nodded. Spyder, Harris and I started towards Veracity’s house.

*timeskip*

When we approached Veracity’s house, there were flashing lights, strobe lights. I shielded my eyes.   
“Veracity’s having a party.” I said  
“A party?” Harris and Spyder asked  
“And she just texted me for help.” I said, putting my phone back in my pocket. We walked through the door and I gasped in shock. I saw a couple of drinks and I was vaguely aware of how thirsty I was.   
“I’m thirsty.” I said, and grabbed a cup, filling it with some sort of drink. I drank and it fizzed and burned my throat. I drank the rest of it and felt really giggly.   
“Liz… what was that?” Spyder asked  
“It was good.” I slurred, slightly.   
“And our best fighter is drunk.” Harris said  
“I’m not drunk Harris. Let’s go dance.” I said, grabbing Spyder’s hand. He pulled me back.   
“We’re here to find Veracity.” He told me  
“And then she can dance with us!” I squealed. Harris shook his head and dragged me along, while Spyder went to go dance.   
“Why does he get to go dance?” I pouted  
“Because… he’s Spyder. You’re Elizabeth, you’re sensible.” Harris said, dragging me to Veracity.   
“Sen-si-ble.” I said, saying each syllable clearly.   
“Oh great, you’re here too. Bad to worse.” Veracity said  
“But Veracityyyyyy I thought we were friends.” I said, hiccupping.   
“She’s drunk isn’t she?” Veracity asked and Harris nodded. “I’ll get her some water.” Veracity said, handing me a cup of water. I drank and shook my head and felt dizzy.   
“Ughhh.” I groaned. “Is the room spinning.” I said, holding onto Veracity’s shoulder for support.   
“Why would you invite all these people?” I asked  
“Oh, that drink must really be messing with your head.” She said. I nodded. I slowly wandered off and grabbed another one. What?! It tasted good. Harris grabbed me and dragged me back to where he and Veracity were.   
“How many of those drinks have you had?” Veracity asked, shocked. I giggled  
“I don’t knowwwwww… a looootttt.” I slurred. Harris and Spyder started doing some weird hand gesture thingies and I giggled again. I squealed and covered my ears and feedback started sounding. Then the speaker blew up.   
“That was fun! Let’s do it again.” I said, clapping my hands. Veracity stopped me from clapping and shook her head.   
“Well! Who wants to talk about our changing bodies. It’s completely normal, all 100% completely normal.” Spyder said and I bit back a couple of laughs.   
I was sitting on the steps, bouncing up and down as I waited for Veracity and Harris to stop talking and Spyder was ushering everyone out. Veracity had given me another cup of water and some medicine tablet thingies which I took. I was still drinking the water. “That Spyder guy ruined the party. But it’s hilarious how we took over some nobody’s house.” Some jerk said and I snapped.   
“You want hilarious, I’ll show you hilarious.” I said, while cracking my knuckles. Veracity grabbed me and held me back.   
“You can do that when you’re sober, kay.” She told me.  
“I am sober thooooo. Oooooooh look at the pretty lights.” I said, staring at the fairy lights, adorning the front door. I went up to the front door and saw a monster. I tugged Spyder’s jacket sleeve.   
“Look!” I said, and pointed to a monster.   
“Oh no… you can not fight in this condition.” He told me  
“Sure I can, let me at him.” I said. Harris and Veracity joined us at the front door. The monster was sucking the light out of the house, so I said: “The monster’s sucking the living daylight’s out of the house.”  
“Yup.” Veracity said. Then Mech X4 arrived.   
“Look, our robot arrived.” I said, giddily.   
“Our robot?” Harris asked  
“Your robot?” Veracity said at the exact same time. Then the monster started sucking out Mech X4’s power  
“Did that thing just suck out Mech X4’s power?” Spyder asked  
“You are sharp.” Veracity responded  
“We’re just gonna get Lizzy home, now.” Spyder said and grabbed me by the arm, dragging me to the robot. We whooshed up in the elevator.   
“I wanna sit down…” I slurred, again.   
“And the alcohol’s kicking in.” Harris said  
“Alcohol?” Ryan asked  
“Loonnnggggg Story.” I slurred again and collapsed into a seat. Harris put a potato generator on the table.   
“Ooooh potato.” I said, in my own little world.   
“HELLO!” Leo said and I screamed and fell off the chair. I quickly got back up and sat back down. I started staring at the potato again, drifting in and out of consciousness.   
“Guys we can take her down!” I heard Ryan say  
“Take who down?” I asked  
“Maybe she should stay here.” Mark said  
“I’mmmm tirreeeeed. And now I’mmm sickkkk.” I said, running to the bathroom. I passed out there. 

I woke up and the robot was up and running. I slowly staggered to the control room.   
“Hi.” I said. “My head hurts.” I stated  
“Looks like the alcohol passed through.” Harris said  
“We’re returning the generator back to Veracity. Wanna come?” Spyder asked. I nodded. 

I rang the doorbell to Veracity. She opened it.  
“Am I talking to a drunk Eliza or a sober Eliza?” She asked  
“Sober with a huge headache.” I told her. She then realized Harris and Spyder were behind me holding the generator.   
“I sPeCIfICAllY ToLD yOU NOt tO TaKE iT oUt oF tHe hOUsE!” She yelled at Harris.   
“We had a few things to charge, so I tried to max it out with an Idaho Russet.” Harris said, trailing off.   
“An Idaho Russet. Ohhh you could have destroyed the city. I - I— I thought that we were frenemies and…” Veracity trailed off  
“We are. Kind of.” Harris said  
“You know it would make my life easier if you two just got along.” Spyder said. Harris and Veracity murmured various degrees of protests.   
“Well then, you asked for it.” Spyder said and I got nervous.   
“Uhh… what’s he doing?” I asked. Then Spyder started dancing by himself. I don’t know. It was weird and I tried to block it out of my memory. Romantic music also started playing and uh… I was confused.   
“Am I the only one wondering where the music is coming from?” I asked. Veracity nodded and so did Harris. Spyder finally stopped when Harris apologized, handing Veracity the box.   
“Accepted.” She said.   
“I build bridges.” Spyder was triumphant.   
“And just so you know we’re serious…” Harris trailed off and Spyder brought out various cleaning tools.   
“No. No one told me about this. I’m only here because you have headache medication and Ms Walker would kill me if she found out I was drunk last night.” I said.   
“You can sleep in the guest room until it wears off. Medication is in the cupboard under the sink.” Veracity told me. I thanked her and walked into her house.


	9. Episode 7

“I mean, he threw the robot like a rag doll.” Spyder continued on with his rant.  
“Spyder we get it. Traeger’s powerful. But you guys didn’t have me fighting with you.” I said. Harris then took out the drone with a metal bar.  
“Why would you?” Ryan asked  
“Watch.” Harris said. So we did. The robot began assembling itself back together.  
“You used nanites, didn’t you.” I said  
“Yup. So we’ll never lose any intel on Grey or Traeger.” Harris said. “And once it confirms it’s targets, it’ll attack.” I realized where this was going so I quickly changed the targets to Grey and Traeger before it could attack.  
“New target accepted.” The computer said  
“Fly! Be free!” Harris said  
“Oh, Mark’s calling me.” I said and quickly pulled him up.  
“Hey Dingus, you’re Mech Link was off, I had to call Lizzy. Didn’t you get mom’s text. She wants us home, now! Lizzy too” Mark said.  
“Great. Bye.” I said, turning off my Mech Link. “Have fun, don’t be irresponsible, do your homework and if someone gets hurt, it’s Harris’s responsibility. Also Harris, you’re in charge.” I said  
“Yes mom.” Both Spyder and Harris said, rolling their eyes  
“Ha ha.” I said dryly. I grabbed my backpack and waved goodbye as Ryan and I left. Mark picked us up in his car and we arrived at the Grub Buggy.  
“What do you think your mom wants?” I asked, zipping up my jacket. What it’s cold.  
“I don’t know but whatever it is, we’ll get it done and get back to the robot.” Ryan said  
“Whole weekend on patrol, right?” I asked. Ryan nodded. Then someone touched my shoulder. I turned around and quickly hit whoever it was in the face. It was their dad.  
“oops.” I muttered. “Sorry Mr Walker.” I apologized.  
“Not a problem. You’ve got a killer punch. Anyway, you guys seem on edge today.” He told us  
“We thought you had a couple of weeks left working at the hospital in Bolivia.” Mark said  
“Yea well, we finished up early and I got to come home. Nice meeting you, Elizabeth. If you’re Ryan’s twin I consider you my daughter.” He told me  
“Sorry again about the whole… face thing.” I said.  
“It’s fine. I scored four tickets to the Future Technology Convention.” He said  
“I’ve been trying to get tickets for months. Nada.” I said in awe. “And some basketball dude is also there.” I added on  
“How perfect is that. Science for Elizabeth, video games for Ryan, sports for Mark and music for everyone. You know DJ Live Rats performed there last year.” He said. Grace walked up to us.  
“Eh. She played a set in our living room once.” Grace said.  
“Really. An international superstar played in your living room.” Their dad said, obviously not believing us.  
“Yeah. Mom’s billionaire tech-genius, previously adoptive father of Lizzy, ex-boyfriend payed her to.” Mark said  
“And then he tried to destroy the world.” Grace said  
“We should talk more.” Their dad said, concerned.  
“Thanks. This is… this is amazing.” I said  
“I’m glad you’re so excited. You guys didn’t have any other plans this weekend, did you?” He asked us. Ryan, Mark and I looked at each other.  
“Nah.” We all said  
“Come on, lighten up. It’s a couple days with your dad, not the end of the world.” He said, patting Ryan on the back. I nodded and got into the car as we headed to the expo.

We arrived at the expo and walked through the door.  
“Hi there, Davis Walker, Ryan Walker, Mark Walker and Elizabeth Walker.” The computerized voice said  
“Walker, huh?” I questioned  
“I mean, you already sleep at our house and do you really wanna be known as a Harper?” Ryan asked me  
“Fair point. Oh! I thought I saw Veracity. I’m gonna go now… Okay bye.” I said, quickly and ran off. I started navigating through the crowds and made it to the back of the 3D printer crowd.  
“It’s… a butt. It’s supposed to look like my face.” The navigator complained  
“It does.” I called out and snuck away, leaving the laughing crowd behind me.  
“Veracity! Lily!” I yelled, waving my arms. They waved at me and motioned for me to come join them.  
“Am I interrupting a date or something? I don’t wanna be rude?” I said, uncertainly.  
“It’s fine.” Lily said and Veracity nodded.  
“I am displaying all my inventions.” Veracity said  
“Cool.” I responded. Lily took out her phone.  
“Speaking of cool, my little brother did something to our freezer and I gotta go. Bye Lizzy, bye Veracity.” Lily said, giving Veracity a quick kiss on the lips and I grinned. We started talking about her inventions.  
“Awww… this little guy’s so cute!” I said, petting her robo-dog.“Yea. He likes intellectually superior people.” She told me.  
“So it would hate Spyder, in other words.” She nodded and I laughed. Ryan approached us.  
“Hey Veracity! You won? That’s awesome.” Ryan said. He then started petting the dog who barked at him.  
“What’s this?” He asked  
“That’s my robot dog. I call him Li’l Harris. I was gonna call him Li’l Lily but it turned out to be a boy so… yea.” She finished  
“Woof Woof. Dang Son.” The dog said  
“Harris would actually love that.” Ryan said. “Wait you invented all of these and won every prize?” Ryan asked  
“Except for sixth. Kristi Medlin.” She said her name with disgust.  
“But! This baby, right here is what won me first place.” She said, grabbing a remote, “The buzzkill.” She announced  
“What does it do?” I asked  
“A hand-held annoying person device disabler. Here watch!” She said, aiming her device in the direction of someone who was arguing through the phone.  
“Hello… grandma?” The girl asked into the phone  
“So it stops asshole behaviour.” I summarized  
“Language! But yes.” She told me.  
“You’re kinda scary.” Ryan said, his voice cracking  
“Later.” Veracity said, laughing.  
“Look! Mark’s getting a girlfriend.” I said grinning.  
“Here. This amplifies his voice and whoever he’s talking to.” Veracity said, handing me a megaphone. I aimed it at them  
“You’re lucky you’re cute.” The girl said  
“Is she talking about Mark?” I asked.  
“No! Can’t be.” Veracity said  
“It really does help.” Mark said. I made a face. 

*timeskip*

“Yea… I can’t do this anymore.” I said, putting down the megaphone.  
“How boring can two people be?” Veracity asked  
“oooh. I know. Ryan and his dad are doing the VR thing and I need new content for Instagram.” I said, grinning. Veracity and I approached them and grabbed our phones and started videoing them fighting air  
“Straight to the internet.” We both said, fist bumping and recording them. I then saw one of Harris’s drones. It was aiming right at us. I pushed Veracity and I out of the way and onto the floor, the drone firing at where we were.  
“Thanks. Uhh what’s going on?” She asked  
“Good question. I have no idea. This is one of Harris’s inventions but he isn’t answering his phone.” I told her.  
“Why would he make a killing drone?” She asked me. I just shrugged. It fell over with a loud crash. The nanites escaped the drone.  
“OHhhh this is bad. You get yourself to safety and I’ll be fine.” I told Veracity  
“What no! I’m not leaving you.” Veracity protested  
“Do you wanna die?” I asked  
“Nope!” She said and quickly moved out of the way. I ran over to Ryan and Mark.  
“What’s going on?” I asked them. They both shrugged.  
“The bots looked like they were after you or Ryan.” Mark said  
“Well no shit!” I said. Then a drone launched itself directly at my head. I ducked and it almost killed Veracity. Ryan quickly blew it up and more tech got up in the air.  
“So now regular tech is after me?” Ryan said  
“Not regular tech. The nanites. There must be a glitch in the system.” I said to Ryan  
“Can’t you zap em?” Mark asked  
“No there’s too many. It’s like a thousand tiny little robots.” Ryan said. Then the vacuum exploded.  
“Okay! So new plan. Destroy all the tech in here before it kills us.” I said  
“We can’t just do that!” Ryan said  
“The nanites aren’t compatible with the tech. It’ll either blow up or attack.” I said  
“I’m gonna call Harris.” Ryan said and we nodded, hiding behind a box.  
“He didn’t answer. Like before.” I said, as the call went to voicemail. They both looked at me.  
“Hey, I’m smart and all but I’m more of a fighter.” I told them  
“Well then, we’ll figure this out ourselves.” Mark said. I ducked as a drone flew over our heads and it headed right for Veracity.  
“Umm… guys. I don’t think the tech is targeting us.” I told them. Ryan dismissed me with a wave of his hand.  
“We have to protect all the regular people first.” Ryan said. He and Mark left and I decided to find Veracity.  
“Liza. My tech is going nuts.” She told me  
“Not your fault.” I told her  
“Yea but it’s like all the tech in the room is after me.” She told me. Then her fake dog started attacking her.  
“I will put you down. I mean it.” I said. I stomped on her dog and she ripped the head off.  
“Okay! So it looks like all the tech in this room is targeting you. Don’t worry I can probably destroy it all…” I said, uncertainly  
“Yea okay.” She said, in slight shock.  
“Oh! Hi Mark!” I said cheerfully, smashing a car with my boot.  
“You were right.” He said. I started fighting a fan. It caught my hair on the left side of my head inside of it. The one day I decide to wear my hair out! I just shrugged, grabbed scissors out of my pocket and did a choppy cut, freeing myself. Then I destroyed the fan.  
“Hairstyle looks nice.” Veracity said.  
“Yea actually I was planning on cutting it. Might as well just shave half of it off.” I said shrugging.  
“It would suit you.” She told me.  
“Aww thanks.” I said, kicking another car. “Okay! How many cars did people make!” I exclaimed.  
“Doors are now sealed.” I heard the computerized voice say.  
“Fuck!” I muttered  
“Targeting Veracity Campbell.” It said  
“I’m sorry. What?!” She exclaimed.  
“Get behind here.” I told her. I pulled her down next to me and we hid behind one of the tables. “See! This is what happens when you’re the smartest kid in Bay City! Someone programmed all this tech to attack me.” She said  
“Who would do such a thing.” Ryan was feigning ignorance.  
“There’s only one person smart enough ad petty enough to do this. Kristi Medlin.” She said  
“If we could get to your buzzkill and amplify it, it may have enough power to destroy all the tech.” I said  
“It’s back at my booth.” She said  
“We can cover for you.” I told her. I went in front and we slowly made our way to her booth.  
“Drone!” Ryan shouted at me. I panicked, I didn’t have anything to kill it with. No one was looking at me so I blasted it to bits.  
“What was that?” Veracity and Ryan said at the same time. Ryan was angry and Veracity was in awe.  
“I panicked and I will explain later.” I said as we ran.  
“Mark! Here take this!” The same girl who we saw talking to Mark earlier said  
“She remembers my name cuz I’m cute.” Mark bragged once she left  
“You’re not that cute.” Ryan said  
“Oh no!” I muttered. We were surrounded by tech. “How many people would notice if I lit that tech on fire?” I asked Ryan.  
“too many!” He told me. Mark was by Veracity’s station  
“Mark! The Buzzkill.” She shouted. He nodded and lobbed her the buzzkill.  
“Nice catch.” I commented. She nodded her thanks and started tweaking it. “DONE!” She said and everything stopped. “wow. I’m more impressive than I thought.” She said, in shock.  
“You really are.” I said and we walked away.

*timeskip*

“Okay! I am really sorry about the nanite thing.” Harris said  
“It’s fine. I just gotta figure out a way to explain my powers to Veracity.” I said, blowing a strand of hair out of my face. I decided to completely shave the half of my head where the fan attacked and have the other half choppy and straight and it worked for me.  
“You WHAT?” Harris asked  
“I can’t believe you took on Traeger.” I said, trying to change the subject. “I mean I almost died trying to fight a possessed fan and damaged my hair, and you took on Traeger and only suffered a broken arm.” I told him  
“It was awesome!” Spyder exclaimed. “I left out the part about mommy’s precious cargo.” Spyder whispered  
“Mommy’s precious cargo.” I snickered  
“You told Veracity about your powers.” Harris accused  
“I panicked!” I defended myself. “At least she didn’t die!”“So what’s next?” Mark asked  
“We watch this guys every move and when the time is right take him down.” I said


	10. Episode 8

I was sitting between Ryan and Spyder on the couch.  
“So this is what little red ooze we could salvage from when Grey was holding Harper.” Harris said, motioning to a jar of red ooze.   
“We’ve been analyzing it to help us create a weapon to destroy it. Liz helped us weld it together.” Leo said“I was your human blowtorch.” I summarized  
“And bam!” Harris said, revealing an arm cannon.  
“Ohhhh! It looks explodey.” Spyder said  
“That’s because it is explodey.” Harris said, aiming the weapon straight at me. I ducked and Ryan and Spyder moved out of the way.   
“Easy, tiger.” Leo told Harris  
“We figured if we could hit it with the right frequency, we could turn it from red ooze…” Leo paused to put on goggles. I grabbed some from under the table, just in case.   
“Do we need goggles?” Spyder asked  
“I have.” I said and handed Spyder and Ryan goggles  
“From red ooze…” Leo said. I shielded my eyes as Harris fired up his arm cannon. “To no ooze.” The entire jar just disappeared too.   
“The beaker also disappeared.” I pointed out  
“it’s not perfect.” He said  
“I want one!” Spyder said  
“We all need one.” Ryan pointed out  
“oh really. That’s too bad cuz I only made 4 exact replicas of this.” Harris said, one of the walls flipping around. I ran and grabbed one. I experimentally fired it at the air next to the couch. It had a jerking motion back like shooting a gun or something and I staggered back as it hit the couch.   
“I’ll replace that.” I said. The arm thing was heavy.   
“If that’s the case, I’m out of here!” Leo said, picking up his bag. “We’ve been fighting way too many flying monsters and I’m gonna pick up a few things to repair the robot’s flight mode.”   
“We didn’t - we didn’t already fly?” Spyder asked  
“No! We just sort of leaped through the air, like a ballerina.” I said  
“Can we not compare the robot to a ballerina.” Ryan said and I just shrugged  
“I have to keep a low profile now that Harper’s back so if you need me, my secret name is Constantine Del Montevideo (I used the subtitles for that one). The third. Esquire. Thank you. Okay. Good luck. Goodbye!” Leo said. Mark walked in and passed Leo, who then told Mark “Hi! My name is Constantine.”   
“Guys, I was just checking the sensors and it looks like Traeger is just outside Bay City.” Mark told us  
“Why though.” Harris asked  
“Who cares?” I scoffed and then elaborated. “Look he’s expecting a giant robot and he knows nada about me. We have the element of surprise with these cannon thingies. We can take him down. You ready?” I asked, hyping them up  
“Ready!” Harris and Ryan confirmed  
“Yea gimme one of those.” Spyder said. I handed everyone an arm cannon and we sat down in our respective seats

*timeskip*We were just leaping along in our robot. “See! Leaping!” I said to Spyder  
“Just saying, if you read the message boards, it says we can fly. It also updated on the loss of your flight superpower.” Spyder told us  
“We have message boards?” I asked and Spyder nodded.   
“We’re getting closer to Traeger’s location. But if these readings are right, it says that he’s 20 feet underground?” Harris said, in a questioning tone  
“So we go down.” I said  
“Are you sure you’re okay to go into battle?” Mark asked Harris  
“Absolutely son. Even a one armed Harris is still dangerous.” Harris said  
“Nerdo’s got guts.” Mark said  
“You knocked yourself out in a fight a couple months ago.” I told Harris and he glared at me. Harris winced as Mark fist-bumped him. 

We landed by the rock. I grabbed my arm cannon and so did everyone else and we all left the robot.  
“Where are we?” Mark asked as we walked  
“No fucking clue.” I commented  
“I think it’s some kind of secret weapons facility.” Harris said  
“I’m getting high-tech smart weapons and random and weird energy signals.” I said, using my Mech Link  
“This place is filled with dangerous stuff. We can’t let him leave with any of it.” Ryan told us  
“Yeah no, but if we save the place, we can take stuff, right?” Spyder asked  
“But of course, Spyder.” I said, in a British accent, mockingly sweet, patting him on the back. There was a boom. “Traeger. Let’s go.” I said and jumped into the hole after Ryan. I flew down.   
“There are stairs!” Ryan shouted at me as I fell down, passing him in a rush. In hindsight, it wasn’t the smartest move, but it was fast. I fell down on top of Spyder, he broke my fall.   
“Thanks.” I told him, getting up off him and brushing myself off.   
“Ow…” Spyder groaned. “You owe me for that.” He said, getting up.   
“Quiet!” Harris snapped. I brought out my arm cannon and held it in front of me in defense. I quietly yelped when I saw all the unconscious guards and prayed they weren’t dead.   
“Sorry unconscious dude.” Spyder said, bumping into someone on the ground. I scanned him with my mech link.  
“He’ll live.” I finally concluded  
“Now that we know they’re alive, where’s Traeger?” Ryan asked  
“Good question. Harris?” I asked  
“He should be right…” Harris was interrupted by a noise. We all whipped in that direction and I shot a warning blast.   
“Whoa… it’s just me, Spyder. S-Spyder.” He told us. I noticed something on the ground. I bent over and picked it up.   
“The tracking dart fell off.” I said  
“Alright! Let’s get hunting.” Harris said. He lifted his arm cannon and made a pained noise  
“Hey! You good? You can stay and guard and the rest of us can go look.” Mark told Harris  
“No! I can handle this. We can cover more space if we split up!” Harris said and walked away.   
“Mark, Ryan, you guys are a good team, you go that way and Harris, Spyder and I will go that way.” I said. The four of us nodded and Spyder and I ran to catch up to Harris. We finally caught up to him walking alone through what looked like a storage area.   
“Harris. HARRIS!” I said, getting his attention.   
“Sh.” He whispered  
“What are you doing running off without thinking, that’s my thing!” Spyder said  
“You okay?” I asked  
“I’m fine!” He said  
“No you’re not! You’re acting crazy, what’s up with you?” Spyder said  
“Look, I need a win. I’m the one who lost Grey when we freed Harper. If we’d stopped her, Traeger would’ve never been born. This is all on me.” Harris said  
“No one blames you. Besides you would’ve been out of there way faster if I hadn’t been kidnapped so if anything, it’s actually all on me.” I said, trying to shift the blame  
“You’re right. I blame Lizzy.” Spyder declared  
“Well, I blame me! Look, let’s just focus on finding Traeger, okay? I don’t need your pity.” Harris said, aiming that last comment at me. He walked off, leaving me and Spyder behind.  
“Alright. Okay.’” I muttered  
“I don’t actually blame you, you know that, right?” Spyder whispered. I rolled my eyes and caught up with Harris. After a little walking we saw Traeger choking Ryan.   
“Don’t do anything impulsive.” Harris warned me. I darted in front of Traeger and saw Harris facepalm.   
“Hey, Traeger. You want someone with power, try me!” I called out. He threw Ryan to the side and I winced. I aimed a kick uhhh… below the belt. It did nothing to him. “Alright! Let’s try this again.” I muttered. I ran at him. He held up a hand and held me back. I was stuck running in place. It was almost comedic. He then picked me up and just before he could choke me, he was hit by the arm cannon, from Harris. Spyder then blasted him. He dropped me to the floor. I quickly held up my cannon and blasted at him too. Ryan and Mark later joined in. Traeger let out a yell of pain  
“how?” He asked us  
“Science!” Harris yelled. Traeger blasted a circle of energy around him, knocking me to the floor along with everyone else. Traeger jumped through the ceiling. I quickly scrambled to my feet and grabbed my arm cannon.   
“Let’s go.” I said. We ran in the direction Traeger may have gone. We found him in a room with some crystal thingy.   
‘What’s he doing in here?” Ryan asked  
“Something bad?” Spyder stated, sounding like a question.   
“No shit Sherlock.” I told Spyder  
“Sh!” Ryan whispered  
“That must be what he’s here for.” Mark said  
“So we won’t let him leave alive.” I summed up. We surrounded Traeger  
“Hi! I don’t believe we got to properly introduce ourselves. You’re Traeger and I’m Elizabeth and you’re surrounded and I have a weapon that can hurt you. We all caught up now?” I asked  
“You hurt me, I respect that. I will never underestimate you again. Just like you won’t underestimate me again.” Traeger said. I registered what he said a split second before everyone else did and put up a shield around me to protect me. I forgot about the others in that moment, a survival instinct. He turned into a monster.   
“I thought he was gonna attack us for a minute.” I muttered. He sang his arm at me and I was hurled across the room and landed on Spyder.   
“Thank.” I told him.   
“You. Owe. Me.” He said, emphasizing each point.   
“Here’s an idea. RUN!” I yelled. I grabbed his arm and pulled him along as we caught up to the others. The debris was about to fall on us.   
“Hugs, everybody!” Spyder yelled. I was confused. He pulled me under his bounce belt shield. I extended the shield with a shield of my own.   
“We’re good.” I said, retracting my shield.   
“Guys, he just ripped out a weapon, he damaged the whole system.” Harris said  
“It’s overloading. Mark and I may be able to fix this, you guys get to the robot.” I told them  
“If it explodes it’ll kill everyone in this facility.” Harris said  
“I have a shield that can protect us and heat resistance. We’ll be fine.” I told them.   
“We can find a way to shut off the power.” Mark told me and we ran to the control panel. I assessed it  
“Okay, so that’s the on button and that’s a lever to increase power.” I said  
“What do the other ones do?” He asked me  
“Hmmmm… DO I LOOK LIKE A GENIUS TO YOU?” I yelled.   
“Kinda.”   
“Okay, ummmm…. Just try fiddling with the wiring.” I said, opening the control panel.   
“Couldn’t just be an off switch, could it?” Mark asked  
“Nope!” I said and we started fiddling with wires.   
“Have you guys found a way to cut the power?” Ryan asked us  
“We’re working on it. I think maybe if we can recalibrate-”  
“New idea!” I told Mark and ripped out a bunch of wires, cutting off the power.  
“That works too.” He muttered.   
“On our way.” I said, high-fiving Mark. We started running through the area and made it to the ladder when I felt a sharp pain in my back, from the robot.   
“Oh god! We have to help them.” I told Mark. We started climbing up and I felt like I’d just been flipped and tossed around. When we both got out we saw the robot on its back.   
“That explains that.” I muttered. Traeger had leaped away in his monster form. We got into the robot and ran to the med-bay. We saw Harris on the bed.   
“You good? Dumb question. Are you gonna be okay?” I asked  
“We could’ve won this battle if I had two good arms. I’m sorry.” Harris blamed himself for this.   
“No! It’s not your fault at all! We probably still would’ve lost if you had two good arms. No one blames you.” I reassured him  
“And I looted the armoury.” Spyder said, holding up a bag. We all gave him weird looks.   
“Save that for later.” He said  
“Harris you gotta stop beating yourself up. I used to do that all the time for every little mistake and believe me, it just took a toll on my mental health. So NO! It’s not your fault and no one at all blames you but yourself and you need to let that go!” I told Harris.   
“But we can’t be operating until I’m at 100%.” Harris said  
“So we wait.” Spyder said  
“Yea, and in the meantime we can see what that guys gonna do with the weapon.” Ryan said  
“We can’t wait, Ryan.” Harris said  
“I have an idea, and you’re all gonna hate me for this, but it’s an idea.” I said.   
“As much as I hate it, I think I know what you mean.” Harris told me. We helped him sit up.   
“Here’s the plan. We’re gonna go to Veracity’s house, me and Harris. You guys wait in the robot so we’re prepared to pick her up. She matches and exceeds Harris’s intellect, no offence, and it’ll be nice to have another girl in the robot.” I finished  
“Fine.” Ryan agreed.  
Harris and I left the robot and went to Veracity’s house.  
“Hey Eliza, what’s up hair bear.” Veracity said, when she opened the door.   
“we have something to tell you.” I said a bit nervously  
“This better be about that thing you did at the tech fair. You used magic, and I don’t understand how.” She told me  
“Not magic but uhh powers.” I said  
“Okay.” Then she noticed Harris’s injuries. She gave a short laugh. “Wow. What kinda math have you been doing?” She asked Harris.  
“Ha! Always hilarious. Got a sec.” Harris asked her.  
“Yea, I’ll be out in a sec.” Veracity said and grabbed me and pulled me inside, shutting the door on Harris  
“Okay! What’s going on, and tell me all of it?” She told me  
“Okay! So Ryan, Mark, Spyder, Harris and I kinda pilot Mech X4 and I have powers and I’m the superhero that fights alongside them. We kinda defeated Harper because he framed us for blowing up the school and we thought he was dead but he’s not dead he’s actually alive and wants us all dead. Ooooh and our principal created this monster called Traeger who banged Harris up, pretty badly, the day I got drunk so yea and on top of that, we have to manage school.” I said, really fast  
“Okay! Uhhh Harris is waiting so let’s go.” She said, a little shaken up.  
“Alright so we’ve been rivals since-”  
“Save it!” Veracity interrupted Harris, “Eliza told me basically everything.”   
“Wow, alright.” Harris said  
“It’s time, Ryan!” I said into my Mech Link. “Do yourself a favour and don’t move.” I told her.  
“Wait what… why would I AAAaAAAAAHHHHH.” She screamed as the robot whooshed us up the elevator. The doors opened and she gasped in awe.   
“Welcome to Mech X4.” Ryan said and she looked around in amazement.


	11. Episode 9

I was practicing my new ability, invisibility by just walking around the robot and doing my best to keep it up. I went to the top of the repair loft thingy and just sat there for a little bit, watching Veracity look at the robot. Ryan sat next to me. I waved a hand in front of his face and I realized I was still invisible.   
“Sticky!” Veracity commented, when she touched Spyder’s control panel. She looked at the shields and even sat down in my seat. “This must be Eliza’s, considering all the blue.” She commented. “Why does she have so many buttons?” Veracity said. Then she went to Ryan’s technopath area and started doing punches and blocks.   
“Excuse me!” Ryan said, startling her.  
“Jeez!” She exclaimed  
“That’s my spot.” Ryan pointed out  
“How long have you been up there?” She asked Ryan.   
“Since you said sticky.” He said  
“Hi!” I said, flashing visible. Ryan let out a scream and Veracity cursed.  
“And you?” She asked  
“Since you emerged from the hatch.” I said.  
“Pretty cool, right?” Ryan said  
“Uhhh yea, except for the hallway that smells like bratwurst.” She complained.  
“Didn’t you tell Spyder to stop roasting meat?” I asked Ryan  
“I did.” He confirmed  
“You still haven’t told us that you’re in.” I said and jumped down from the loft area, landing in front of Veracity  
“What? Oh no yea, I - I’m definitely in.” She told me. “Giant monster-fighting robot. I will totally handle defence until Harris gets back.” She told us  
“Bump it.” Ryan said, holding out his fist.   
“I’m psyched to be here but I’m not really the bump it type.” She told Ryan. He slowly put his fist down.   
“So what’s on deck?” She asked  
“Fighting something way worse than some evil old billionaire.” I said  
We were working on a simulation. The simulation monster blasted us backwards.   
“Okay! Uhhh fireballs might work, Spyder, try the missiles.” I called out. I blasted 10 fireballs one after the other and Spyder fired the missiles  
“Pulling up damage reports. Mark we’re losing the ventral armour.” I yelled  
“Already on it.” He said and ran to go fix it.  
“Harris, shields.” Ryan yelled  
“Got you covered, Desmond.” She said  
“Wow. I’ve been calling you Ryan for what? 13 years now.” Spyder said  
“Not now, Spyder.” I told him.   
“Sorry, Veracity, habit.” He said  
“Okay, Spyder, arm cannon, I can shoot the fireballs and then Ryan can-” The power cut off all of the sudden. “My panel’s dead.” I said, in shock  
“Mine too.” Spyder said  
“The robot won’t respond.” Ryan confirmed  
“Bam! Simulation over! Bam! Welcome to Scraptown, y’all.” A miniature Harris, said on our screens  
“That was shit.” I muttered  
“At least the simulation program worked okay.” Spyder said. Mark lifted the hatch and climbed out.   
“Anyone else get an animated Harris mocking them on their Mech Link?” Mark asked  
“Since he’s been injured he’s had a lot of free time.” Spyder said  
“But how did our power go out? Maybe I overused the fireballs or overheated my control panel.” I mused  
“That’s impossible. Your panels power comes from you. You’d have to you know, die before your panel dies.” Mark said  
“Uh… yea this is on me. I figured out a way to extend our shields and keep the monster further away.” Veracity said  
“I think it’s a good idea.” I protested  
“And that’s why it’s a bad idea.” Mark said  
“So I don’t have any good ideas?” I questioned, standing on the chair, looking Mark in the eye.   
“No, but most are suicidal.” He told me  
“NOT TRUE!” I argued  
“Sit down.” Spyder said and pulled me down. I scoffed.   
“I needed the power to extend the shields and it must’ve taken it from your system. My bad.” Veracity said  
“It’s a good idea, but you have to tell us so we can work as a team.” Ryan said  
“I was just trying to win.”  
“We were all trying to win.” His voice started rising. “These simulations are supposed to help you learn to work with us, but you’ve gotta work with us.” He was yelling by the end  
“Ryan!” I said sharply. “Veracity gets it, don’t be so harsh, you weren’t exactly perfect for a really long time, and you still aren’t so CHILL!” I snapped  
“Hey guys, how’d the simulation go?” Harris asked us, chiming in over the screen.  
“Perfect! Veracity was great. Uhh you’re still great too I mean it’s your chair you’re just uh injured. Man do I know how to defuse a room or what.” Spyder said  
“Or what.” I muttered  
“I found the plane Grey and Traeger stole. They’re way up in the Arctic.” Harris told us  
“That’s too far for us to rocket jump.” Mark pointed out  
“We need Leo’s flight mode.” I said and pulled up the schematics. “Mark and Harris have a coinciding free period to finish it and the rest of us can test it after school, plus we have rehearsal during free period.” I said.   
“Great training session everyone. See y’all at school.” Ryan, Mark and Spyder left but I stayed behind.   
“I’m sorry about Ryan.” I told her, sitting down on the desk  
“It’s fine.” She said stiffly  
“If it makes you feel any better, they basically reacted the exact same way to me. Give Ryan time, he’ll come around to it.” I told Veracity. She exhaled shakily.   
“Thanks, but uhh we should go.” She said, quickly, avoiding my gaze.  
“it’s okay to cry or feel frustrated.” I told her“I know. But when you cry it’s because your frustrated that you can’t kill the person arguing with you. When I cry… well I barely ever cry.” She said. I gave Veracity a hug.   
“You wanna try training again?” I asked her and she nodded. 

*timeskip to school*

Veracity and I had just finished designing the stage for the play.   
“So if you text the pictures to the rest of the cast, I can start rigging up a couple devices.” I said to her. She nodded and started snapping pictures.  
“YO! SUP LIZZY, V” Spyder yelled  
“SHH!” Everyone in the room said  
“Sorry.” He quietly apologized and approached us  
“Is this some sort of kid prison?” Spyder asked us  
“Spyder go away.” We both said  
“No.” He said firmly  
“I’m reading Harris’s stupid tutorial on my backup iPad again.” Veracity said  
“I broke her first one when she pulled out the tutorial.” I explained.  
“You don’t need this.” Spyder said, grabbing her iPad.  
“Hey.” Veracity protested  
“I came here to tell you that Liz has every right to back you up and that you’re doing fine. PS Liz, Ryan’s not talking to you because you backed Veracity.” Spyder told me  
“He’s being irrational.” I said, aggravated  
“Look… I can memorize ever ridiculous detail in that stupid tutorial but that’s not gonna solve the real problem.” Veracity said  
“Right!” Spyder said, cluelessly  
“I’m used to working alone or with someone that matches my intelligence like Eliza. The whole others relying on me and me relying on others thing, just… just kinda weirds me out. I actually don’t have a lot of friends or anything.” Veracity admitted  
“So you’re just like Liz when we first met her.” Spyder said  
“2 things. 1. I swear a lot less so you guys have had a good influence and 2. Fuck you.” I said  
“The second thing can be arranged.” Spyder said  
“Let me rephrase the second thing then. 2. Fuck you guys I did have friends like… oooh or there was… I had friends.” I said  
“But Liz is just proof. You know what’s cool about the robot. It made us all teammates, and friends. Mark and I didn’t get along and now we’re like super buds.” Spyder bragged  
“Dingus. Me and Nerdo are ready to test flight mode. Peace, buttface.” Mark buzzed in on the Mech Link and I held back a couple laughs  
“No problem best bud.” Spyder said weakly and loudly.  
“Shh.” Everyone else whispered  
“I hate kid prison.” Spyder muttered. He grabbed his bag and paused at the door before turning around. “I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!” He yelled and left  
“We should go too.” I told Ver. We gathered our stuff and left. 

Mech X4 leaped up and attached itself to the flight gear.   
“Again! It feels like a really weird, itchy backpack.” I said, scratching my back. “The jet’s integrated. Mark!”   
“Locked in!” He said  
“And we’re flying!” Ryan said  
“This is the actual best.” I said, happily  
“Can’t you fly?” Spyder asked  
“I lost that power remember.” I told Spyder.  
“Oh yea…”  
Ryan started doing a bunch of tricks  
“Spin faster.” Spyder urged  
“Or slower, preferably in a straight line.” Mark said  
“I second that.” I said, feeling a little nauseous. Then there was an explosion. I was thrown back into my chair  
“Why is my body on fire?” I asked, calmly. (Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire. That kind of tone)  
“I’m reading some kind of e-explosion.” Veracity said. “Damage reports coming in.”  
“Shut the jet down, take us back to the hangar, this test was a failure.” Mark said  
“Ya think?” I asked. “The jet has a combustion engine not an electrical one. We have to physically slow it down somehow and get rid of the fuel.” I said  
“That’s suicidal. To go out there.” Mark said  
“Alright fine. Mark bust Harris out of the jet, the carbon monoxide from the explosion may be making him loopy.” I said. “Veracity, why is my butt on fire  
“There seems to be a fire in the anterior syndromic system. So… the robot’s butt.” Veracity said  
“Okay! Spyder, Veracity, you’re with me and Ryan just try not to crash.” I said  
“I have a burn cream for that, if you’d like.” Spyder said.   
“Let’s just go.” I muttered and we raced to the elevator. We ran out and started analyzing the situation.   
“Wow, you guys are fast like a cheetah.” Spyder commented  
“I can match and beat a cheetah’s speed if I want to.” I said, nonchalantly.   
“That should kill someone!” Veracity explained  
“I’m not technically normal.” I said, while looking for a tool.   
“got it!” Veracity said  
“What are we doing?” Spyder asked  
“The robot has a built in fire suppression system and for some reason it’s not activating right now but around this corner is a panel that’s gonna let us…” Veracity trailed off when she saw the burnt panel.   
“Alright. Um new idea. We can activate the system from the vents but it needs two people. I’ve tried it before when I was like 12. Point is Veracity and I can go up there and Spyder, I trust you enough to guide us.” I told them  
“I don’t trust him.” Veracity said  
“What choice do we have?” I argued  
“Are we sure like Ryan couldn’t do this or a water skiing squirrel?” Veracity asked  
“Oh I wish but no. Just trust your teammate.” Spyder said. Spyder removed the cover of the vent and Veracity climbed in. I started jumping and trying to climb the wall trying to get into the vent.   
“Do you want help?” Veracity asked me  
“No.” I said, still struggling.   
“Are you sure?” Spyder asked.   
“I’m sure. I can whoaaa.” I cut off with a yelp as Spyder lifted me and placed me down in the tunnel. “I said I had it.” I growled  
“Didn’t look like it.” Veracity said.   
“let’s just go.” I muttered. Veracity and I started crawling forward, me in the lead.   
“We’re at the split. Spyder’s gonna have to guide us separately. If you go that way and I continue straight we should be good. When you’re done, open the hatch next to you, you should be able to open it and it’ll drop right down into my seat.” I told her  
“Then shouldn’t you take it?” She asked me.   
“Nope! There’s fire in the direction I’m going and you’d burn to death.” I said cheerfully  
“Okay. Okay. Cool.” She muttered and crawled in the opposite direction.   
“Alright Spyder. As soon as Veracity messages that she reached the corner, you’re gonna have to lead us.” I said, through the Mech Link.   
“I’m at the corner.” I heard Veracity yell.   
“Go straight.” Spyder said. I started crawling straight and after half a minute or so, reached a crossroad.  
“Okay now turn right. No left. No!” He panicked  
“Spyder focus! If we die in here it’s your fault and frankly, I don’t feel like dying so figure it out.” I told Spyder  
“Okay!” He took a deep breath “Make a left, then the next right, then the next left and then you two should be golden. Trust me.” He told us  
“I kinda have no choice.” Veracity said, though her Mech Link   
“I’m good.” I said  
“Me too.” Veracity said  
“My panel’s more complicated than I thought. I’m gonna need a couple more minutes.” I said  
“I’m done.” Veracity said  
“Drop through!” I urged her.   
“Alright!” I heard the panel open and her slight scream. “I’m good!” She said. I started fiddling with the wires, cut a couple and then smelt smoke  
“Hey, is there a fire in the vents?” I asked Spyder  
“You have plenty of time before it gets to you.” Spyder told me  
“Are you sure?” I asked  
“I know fire. I destroy a lot of evidence.” He told me  
“Yea… when?” I asked  
“Well the last time I went to juvie it was for a fire related thing. I really learned what not to do there, but that’s beside the point.” He told me  
“Wait! You went to JUVIE?” I yelled at the end  
“Yes why…” he asked  
“What happened? Did they hurt you?” I asked  
“Again! That’s not important.” He told me (Poor baby! He needs a backstory DISNEY!!!!!)  
“Alright and done!” I said, triumphantly.  
“Alright! The fire’s almost everywhere, you can get out now, Liz!” Spyder told me  
“The fire suppression system” I took a deep breath, struggling for oxygen, “is taking it’s sweet ass time coming into the vents.” I said and took another deep breath, but it felt like almost nothing  
“The fire’s coming at me! I can withstand extreme temperatures and my hands are flameproof but if it gets like anywhere else, Ima die.” I panicked. Not a very useful power but nevertheless. There was a fiery burst right at my face and I screamed and started crawling in the other direction. Never had I ever wished for flight more than I did now.  
“I got you Liz! You’re facing the shoe of the robot, so Ryan” Veracity said. “make a steep incline.” She said  
“I’m sliding down the vent. Thanks Veracity!” I said  
“It was Spyder’s idea, I just conveyed it to Ryan and through the Mech Link.” She told me  
“In that case, thanks Spyder.” I said. I tried to squish myself to slide down feet first but I ended up getting stuck. “I’m stuck!” I panicked again. I wiggled around and manage to go back to my original position. They better have a soft landing for me or I’ll break my neck. I squeezed my eyes shut as I started gaining speed. I opened one eye right before the impact and saw Spyder at the opening of the vent and Veracity behind him. I crashed into Spyder and we both fell on the floor. My head was on his chest and his arm were wrapped around my waist  
“aww look at you two.” Veracity said, snickering. I yelped and quickly rolled to the side.  
“Thanks guys.” I said sitting up.  
“Let’s go!” He told me. He helped me up and we started climbing up to the control room.   
“Fire is out!” Veracity said. She climbed through and stood up. I climbed up and Spyder balanced on the last rung of the ladder.  
“And we’re over the ocean, what could possibly go wrong?” Spyder asked. There was a bang and I grabbed Spyder’s hand as he fell off the ladder and almost fell down.   
“That! That is what could possibly go wrong.” I stated and he hauled himself up.   
“I can’t steer anymore.” Ryan said. Veracity and I ran to the computers  
“The fire damaged the rudder, even if we combine forces, it’ll take hours to fix.” I said  
“Well we don’t have hours.” Ryan said  
“I’m aware.” I snapped  
“If we crash into Bay City at this speed, we’ll turn it into a crater.” Veracity said  
“We have one other option, eject and use self destruct!” Ryan said  
“We can’t use the self-destruct!” I argued  
“If you have an idea, I’m listening.”  
“Harris, Lizzy, uh remember in fifth grade, Harris was too afraid to take either of us down in the athletics showdown so we ended up being the two finalists.” She asked us  
“I won if I recall correctly.” I said grinning  
“I wasn’t scared, my parent’s car really did… run out of gas.” He put together  
“If we go outside the robot we can probably dump all the fuel.” I concluded  
“You’ll fall to death at the speed we’re moving at.” Harris said  
“If only we could stay still for a few minutes.” Spyder said  
“Spyder, that’s just it! We can, we just need to use the grappling grip” I said  
“I could dump the fuel but there are four engines. Well three, since the fire took one out.” Mark said  
“Well, since Spyder’s needed for the grappling grip and so is Ryan, I can go too.” I said  
“So can I.” Veracity said  
“Are you sure. I mean the two fuel tanks are on the same side, I could just dump both.” I said  
“There isn’t enough time, I’m going.” Veracity insisted. Mark, Veracity and I ran to the 3D printer.   
“Mark, are you wearing your gravity puck shoes?” I asked him as I opened the weapons cabinet and grabbed my gold and black combat boots. I placed my ankle boots in the weapons cabinet. “Yup!”  
“I don’t think now is the time for a shoe change.” Veracity said  
“Uh yea it is. These shoes have gravity pucks.” I said, handing a pair of black boots to Veracity. “They’ll keep you attached to the jet.”   
“And if they don’t at least I die in a nice pair of new boots.” She said  
“Exactly.” Mark said and I laced up my shoes  
“You, brief her on what’s going on, I’ll get out there early so the robot balances.” I said and scrambled up the ladder. I poked my head out and was almost instantly blown back by the wind. “WOW OKAY!” I yelled to myself. I planted my feet and started walking to the fuel engine. I used the hand holds to stabilize myself and controlled the winds to go against the robot but around us. I made it to the first fuel tank. I turned around and saw Veracity at the first rung.   
“I’M GONNA EMPTY THIS.” I yelled at her. She nodded. I opened the tank and almost all the fuel came rushing out and the robot was no longer lopsided.   
“HI!” Veracity yelled. “YOU SHOULD GO BACK NOW!” She told me  
“I’M STAYING HERE! I’M NOT GONNA LEAVE YOU OUT HERE. MARK HAS DONE THIS BEFORE, ODDLY ENOUGH. I’M STAYING WITH YOU.” I told here. She rolled her eyes and nodded. She talked with Mark a little over the Mech Link and I manipulated the winds to go around her.   
“GOT IT!” She said and dumped the fuel out. “NOW WE CAN GO.” She told me. She screamed as her gravity pucks detached themselves. My hand grabbed her jacket and I pulled her back.   
“I’M NOT LETTING YOU DIE OUT HERE! GO! I’LL BE BEHIND YOU!” I yelled at her. She nodded and we both started climbing back. Mark had climbed in and I was helping Veracity in. She went through and that’s when my gravity pucks just stopped working and I was pushed back. I grabbed onto the last rung and clung for dear life. I slowly started working my way rung by rung and eventually made it. The only problem was I was literally gonna die if I let go of the rung. I slapped my boots and the gravity pucks flickered back on. I opened the hatch and quickly climbed through and closed it. I ran to the elevator and whooshed up just as the robot ran out of fuel. I stepped through and saw everyone looking at me like they’d seen a ghost.  
“What? Just because I’m late means no one’s gonna talk to me?” I asked. Then Spyder of all people raced up to me and started kissing me. I’m not gonna lie and say I didn’t like it. It was nice. Okay more then nice. It felt like a hundred butterflies had burst out of my chest and I smiled into the kiss. We finally pulled apart after what felt like an eternity when everyone started hugging me.   
“Thank god you’re okay. I mean I climbed through and the hatch door closed so I assumed you had gone through but when I turned around you weren’t there and I got so panicked for a moment.” Veracity said  
“Hey Ryan, since we’re gliding, shouldn’t you be in your flight girdle?” I asked  
“We both know it’s not a girdle, idiot.” Ryan said and buckled into his harness. 

*timeskip*

So Spyder and I had worked out that we would try dating for a few weeks, see how that turned out and if it worked, we’d get back together. Currently, Veracity, Ryan, Spyder and I were sitting on the couch and my head was in Spyder’s lap and he was playing with my hair. Harris and Mark came back, Mark was holding a pipe.   
“Leo had to build the flight mode out of whatever tech he could find, some of the fuel lines weren’t secure enough. Some of the gas leaked into the thrusters and ignited.” Harris said  
“How long till we can fight Traeger?” I asked  
“As soon as the repair cycle’s over, we can fight, so in a day or so.” Mark said  
“There’s a new 4D movie at the metroplex, Guardians of the Galaxy (Volume 2) and I have enough money for tickets and snacks.” I said, “wanna go?” (I did the research to figure out roughly which movie it would be)  
“Sure!” Ryan said. “Just bought tickets”  
“I’ll get seats.” Mark offered  
“I’m on snack patrol.”  
“I’m gonna make sure Spyder doesn’t get arrested on snack duty.” I said  
“I’ll point out plot holes.” Harris said and we all left. I stuck my head back and looked at Veracity.  
“You coming?” I asked.  
“I’ll shush people who can’t shut up.” She said  
“Cool! Spyder needs someone to tell him to stop shouting at the screen.” I said  
“Alright let’s go.” She said and we all left.


	12. Episode 10

I had made a quick excuse to Grace and was at the library hanging out with Veracity. We were waiting for Harris.  
“So… how’s Lily and you going?” I asked Veracity  
“Good, I really like her and I think she likes me.” Veracity said  
“Cool. Oh look Harris is here.” I said. We watched him and his sister interact for a bit.   
“Your sister seems nice.” Veracity said  
“Try sharing a bathroom with her and three sisters. So, what about you guys? Everything taken care of?” Harris asked  
“Well, I told Grace I’m gonna be hanging with Veracity for the next 3 to 4 days so yea.” I said  
“I got Olivia to take care of my gerbil, my hamster, my rescue Lhasa, my goldfish and my bonsai tree. So if half of them aren’t deceased by the time I get back, I will take that as a win.”   
“What about your dads?” I asked  
“I’m gonna need to make a call.” Veracity said.  
“How long till Spyder gets here?” I asked  
“And Ryan and Mark.” Veracity added  
“Yea I get enough of them by living with them.” I muttered. Mark came through the hatch and Spyder was in the elevator. I burst out laughing when I saw them both. Spyder was in a suit and Mark was in some warrior outfit.   
“Shut up!” Spyder grumbled  
“But it’s just… the whole look… I just can’t.” I said and burst out laughing again.   
“I just got bar mitzvah-ed. So if I die in battle, I die a man.” Spyder said  
“Yea. Okay!” I said, snickering  
“Morbid but respectable. Glad you’re not wearing a man-bun.” Veracity said  
“I should have done that.” Spyder said  
“Do that and I break up with you.” I said, sobering up immediately  
“What happened to you?” Spyder asked Mark  
“I just came back from the Wyvern convention with Georgia.” Ryan climbed through the hatch. “It was actually pretty fun.” Mark said  
“Man, she broke you.” Ryan said  
“Have you ever kissed a girl.” Mark asked. I was just watching this, while eating popcorn.   
“Have you?” Ryan said  
“Yes actually.” Mark said. I was so surprised I choked on my popcorn.   
“Let’s just go.” Ryan said  
“Oh you got me a gift, you shouldn’t have.” Spyder said, looking at the box in Ryan’s hands.   
“It’s not for you. It’s for my mom” Ryan said  
“Dude, even I know that your mom doesn’t want a gift, she told me when I gave her a card today, since I was likely to forget to give it to her ya know on her actual birthday.” I said. “She still took the card.”  
“You two bought that, and I bought this.” Ryan told us  
“What’s in it?” I asked  
“Something from the best son ever.” Ryan told us. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.   
“Alright, let’s go.” I said.   
“Jet’s locked in.” Harris chimed in through the speakers  
“Again! It feels like an itchy backpack.” I commented  
“Shields operational.” Veracity said  
“Power reports coming in.” I said, pulling the reports up. “Hey guys, we’re going to the arctic but is it better to use fire or ice?” I asked, trying to ready a stash of each.   
“Weapons operational and go with fire.” Spyder said  
“All systems stable, you backstabbing, gift-getting weasel.” Mark said  
“Traeger has no idea we’re coming. We have the element of surprise. Today is the day we end this.” Ryan said  
“Here’s another surprise for Traeger: He’s not fighting a boy today, he’s fighting a man.” Spyder said  
“Really, where is he? I just see a bunch of boys and two capable women.” I said  
“How can you guys be so calm?” Veracity asked us  
“Well Ryan masks his fear with confidence.” I said  
“Harris with science.” Spyder said  
“Mark with his ego.” I continued  
“Lizzy with… well she just says what she’s thinking and basically looks before leaping.” Spyder said  
“And Spyder with really, really awful jokes.” I said  
“Sometimes I think you hate me and other times I think you really like me.” Spyder told me  
“Well, sometimes you’re annoying and sometimes you’re sweet.” I said  
“Okay…” Veracity said  
“Look, there’s an extra pair of pants under this suit, we’re all secretly terrified.” Spyder said  
“I mean, if I die, so be it. I didn’t actually accomplish anything useful in my life.” I shrugged and put my feet on my desk.   
“And if we do, we go down doing what we love most.” Spyder said  
“Screaming?” Veracity asked  
“Look at that, 2 days in and you already know him.” I said  
“We’re getting close to the arctic.” Mark said.   
“Alright, we’re almost there.” Ryan said. Then Traeger appeared in front of us.   
“He KNeW We WeRE cOmING?!” I yelled  
“How?” Mark asked  
“It doesn’t matter. Incoming.” Ryan yelped as a fireball whooshed at us.   
“Ice it is.” I decided and launched a ball of ice to neutralize the fire. I started tapping on my computer, reloading the arsenal and whatnot. I programmed it to act like a game in a way. I would continuously tap, and drag the ball to the box and repeatedly do that. Veracity was working furiously at the shields and I was launching ice ball after ice ball. One hit our shoulder.   
“My shoulder’s on fire and my left arm feels dead.” I said  
“Well duh… you get the physical aspect of the robot.” Harris said  
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop them all.” Veracity apologized  
“I am making a note of the date and time Veracity Campbell said sorry.” Harris said  
“Is now really the time to do that.” I asked  
“We can’t get that weapon until he gets off our backs. Spyder, Harris, missiles.” I yelled. The monster retreated  
“We have an advantage, the flight mode. Let’s push it.” Ryan said  
“Let’s finish-”  
“Let’s finish this.” Veracity said over Ryan.  
“Ryan’s the one who kinda does the catchphrases around here… sorry.” I told Veracity  
“Got it” Veracity said. We started rising up when we were hit on the side  
“Scanners are down.” I said  
“Hey, that cloud kinda looks like Harris’s dad.” Spyder said  
“It does not!” Harris said  
“Judgy, disappointed and a dark cloud over your head. Isn’t he?” I asked Harris“What’s that dad? I’m up here saving the world, and what are you doing? Still working at the American Wheat Lobby?” Harris said  
“You guys seriously just talk during battles?” Veracity asked us  
“Ehh sometimes. Also we gotta talk about your home life more Harris, Spyder.” I said  
“How are you still alive?” She asked us  
“Because, we’re not dead.” I told her. There was another explosion.   
“So he must be under us or behind us, in our blind spot, for us not to see him.” I said  
“We can send out the drones and scatter them among the clouds.” Harris said  
“Right! So then they can send out pulses that can hit the monster.” Veracity continued  
“And reflect the sonar back to the robot.” Harris said  
“We’ll find him.” Veracity concluded.“Must be hard for you two to be this far away. Guys texting each other emojis, what colour heart are you on?” Spyder asked  
“Disgusting.” Harris said  
“I have a girlfriend.” Veracity told him  
“Wait, the hearts mean different things. I just like texting the blue and black ones. They’re pretty.” I said  
“Blue heart is friendzone and black heart is sadness.” Veracity explained  
“Sorry, Spyder.” I muttered. “Release the drones.” I said and hit a bunch of buttons.   
“Alright, getting the signals and the monster is at position two-three-four, mark two-seven-nine.” Harris said  
“Right… totally.” Ryan said, confused  
“He means below us.” Veracity explained.   
“Great. Rewiring ice balls and… launch.” I muttered, firing ice directly at the monster, we heard it roar.   
“What did you do, Spyder?” Veracity asked  
“It wasn’t Spyder, it was me. I may have launched ice directly at the monster.” I said quickly  
“You’re so smart! How could you do something so incredibly stupid!” Veracity yelled at me  
“Well, it worked. The monster weighs more and is having trouble flying.” Harris said. Ryan punched down on the monster and held it in a chokehold.   
“My thing is jammed. I’m gonna grab the gravity pucks and go down to investigate.” I said. I quickly laced up the combat boots, with the gravity pucks and headed down. The robot was shaking so I had to use the wall to stabilize myself. I felt the robot pull up and I fell over. I quickly got up and found the problem. A couple of the ice balls had melted and refrozen in the core.   
“Dammit. Can’t use fire either to get rid of it, unless I wanna blow the robot up.” I muttered. I grabbed one of my knives and started sawing at it.   
“Get up here, Liz. We wanna use the X-weapon.” Ryan said, through my Mech Link.   
“Coming.” I yelled and super-sped my way up there. “Here! Let’s go.” I said and strapped myself in. We both fired the power when the monster ducked.   
“Why is it ducking? Why can’t we stop?” I asked, panicked  
“Shut it down, now!” Mark yelled  
“Trying.” Ryan said. This was physically burning me. Something was wrong with the X-weapon or something. Ryan finally shut it off and I basically couldn’t support my own weight and crashed in the girdle. I unstrapped myself.   
“I’m gonna go fix the X-weapon.” I muttered and climbed down to the same place.   
“Ohhh. That makes sense.” I muttered. I had never finished getting rid of the ice so the X-weapon had trouble firing. I continued sawing at the ice and removed it.  
“Liz! Stay down there! Don’t come up.” Ryan said through his Mech Link. I heard Veracity yell something and Ryan’s Mech Link shut off.


	13. Episode 11

“Ryan… Mark… VeRaCITy! SpYDeR! ANYONE?!” I yelled through my Mech Link. “Okay… It’s okay! Just go up there and see what’s wrong.” I said to myself and took a couple deep breaths. “Don’t panic! It’s gonna be fine. I’m sure everyone’s fine. Oh who am I kidding?!!! Nothing’s FINE!” I said to myself. I took more deep breaths and started making my way up through the leg, when something, I assumed threw the legs. I attached my gravity pucks to the floor and protected my vital organs. The lights turned off and the heat dropped rapidly. When I was sure it was stable, I started walking in the direction of the waist. When I arrived there was nothing, just empty space.   
“D-D-D-D-d-d-d-damn.” I muttered, shivering.   
“Okay! My first priority is to stay warm…” I muttered and then noticed the wolves. “Stay warm and run away from the wolves.” I screamed and ran to a closet. It was quite spacious. I curled up into a ball and did my best to save heat while the wolves pawed at the door.   
After a while, my entire body went numb I heard voices. “HELP!” I screamed and started shivering again.   
“LIZ!” I heard Spyder shout  
“ELIZA… THERE ARE WOLVES, OKAY?! BUT WE’RE COMING TO FIND YOU.”Veracity yelled, her voice sounded panicked and she was out of breath. I saw two figures run towards me, a pack of wolves on their heels. They opened the same closet I was in and pressed against the walls.   
“Eliza, oh thank god.” Veracity said. “You’re getting hypothermia, your lips are blue… Spyder hand me her jacket.” Veracity ordered. Spyder sat down next to me and put the jacket on me.   
“Th-th-thanks.” I shivered.  
“We have to get rid of the wolves somehow.” Veracity muttered. I nodded. Spyder helped me up and gave me a hug. He wrapped one arm around my waist/lower back. I buried my face into the side of his neck at his shoulder-ish area and his hand was on the back of my head.   
“This is very touching but what do we do about the wolves.” Veracity asked  
“Shut up! I’m cold.” My voice came out muffled. When I finally felt warm enough I untangled myself from Spyder’s arms.  
“Aaaahhh!” Spyder screamed as the wolves barked at us  
“Okay! I’m scared too, but you have to work with me.” Veracity told Spyder  
“I just realized what human shield means.” Spyder exclaimed  
“Um… okay! Idea! One of us distracts the wolves and the other two run.” I said  
“I’m sure we can come up with a less suicidal plan. Alright do either of you have a bobby pin?” Veracity asked  
“I have.” Spyder said  
“Why?” I asked curiously  
“To pick locks- I mean uhhhh to keep my smooth hair in place.” Spyder fibbed. I yelped and jumped back as a wolf pounced on the door. Veracity grabbed Spyder’s Mech Link and used the bobby pin to fiddle with it.   
“I get it… you’re using the Mech Link to create a high pitched frequency.” I murmured  
“Exactly.” Veracity said  
“Oww…”I yelped and plugged my ears as the feedback resonated  
“A sound to drive the wolves away.” Veracity said. The door opened slightly and the feedback only made the wolves madder.   
“Close it close it close it.” I said and frantically shut the door  
“Spyder Veracity! You guys close to the CPU core?” Harris asked  
“We have a bit of an animal control problem but we’re close.” I said and the three of us jumped back as the wolf barked  
“Oh you found Lizzy, also that does not sound good.” Harris commented  
“We’ll take care of it.” I muttered  
“We can run the program from here but we have to connect the two halves of the robot.” Veracity said. That’s when my legs gave out.   
“Why did I collapse?” I asked  
“You experience the physical aspect and the robot was ripped in half, but you’re mainly connected to the top half. Ripping the robot apart was substantial damage and took a while to transfer to you.”Veracity explained  
“Alright! Eliza can’t walk and those things are gonna tear Harris apart the minute he walks in.” Veracity said.  
“Only one thing to do.” Spyder commented  
“You’re gonna get yourself killed.” I said  
“Probably.” We started placing random bits of metal on Spyder to protect him. I took care of the legs and Veracity did the arms.   
“You’re good to go. I’d hug you but I can’t stand so good luck.” I said, rather awkwardly. Spyder bent down, gave me a hug and left.   
“You two are cute.” Veracity commented  
“Where my wolves at.” Spyder asked and started banging on random pieces of metal leading them away.   
“I’m gonna go reboot.” Veracity said  
“And I’ll be here. Cuz I can’t move.” I muttered. I hated feeling useless. Veracity and Harris did some stuff and I could feel my legs again. I slowly got up and went out to join them  
“Thanks.” I said.   
“Where’s Spyder?” Harris asked. We then heard a scream  
“I’m gonna go save him.” I said. I ran to where Spyder was, accidentally stepping on a wolf paw.  
“I think I made them mad. Uh… we’re all good.” I said. “RUN!” I yelled and we dashed back to where Veracity and Harris were  
“Hey guys… good news I got Spyder, bad news, we got a pack of wolves on our heels.” I said. We all exchanged a quick glance and ran back. We were at Harper’s giant evil lab thingy which apparently we had to trust him now and he was helping us put the robot back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was short although technically it's a continuation of the last chapter


	14. Episode 12

I was sitting on Spyder’s desk absentmindedly tapping my fingers on the desk. I was waiting for Harper to fully connect the robot. Spyder put his hand on mine.   
“Stop that.” He told me. I rolled my eyes and started swinging my legs.   
“The two halves are connected.” Mark said  
“You’re welcome!” Harper said  
“Hey Harper.” I said, getting his attention.   
“You’re my daughter so call me dad.” I scoffed  
“In your dreams. I have a couple things to say to you about the whole fight to take over the world thing and getting rid of my flight.” I said, slowly. Harper looked scared and I saw Spyder and Mark tense up.  
*explicit language warning*  
“FUCK YOU, YOU BASTARD, SON OF A WHORE, BITCH. YOU’RE A SLIMY NO GOOD SON OF A BITCH AND YOU DESERVE TO FUCKING ROT IN HELL. AS A MATTER OF FACT, YOU—mmmpphhhhh.” I was cut off from my rant when Spyder put his hand over my mouth and lifted me up, which wasn’t hard considering my height. I was still yelling insults through the hand.  
“Alright. I’m gonna let you go, but you can’t insult that good-for-nothing, dirtbag, Harper” Spyder said. I nodded and he let go of me. He just said I couldn’t insult him, nothing about punching him. I started running towards him, ready to throw hands when Spyder caught me.   
“I’m gonna go make sure the junctures hold and uh.., stay out of view for the majority of the trip. Bye!” Harper said, before leaving.   
“I’m gonna let you go, and you’re not gonna hurt anyone else, got it?!” Spyder asked me. “Yea… let me go!” I said. I grabbed a book and walked over to my desk and started reading until we were ready to go.   
“Hey guys,” Ryan said, emerging from the elevator. So Leo’s with my birthparents and he wants me to go with him.” “Alright cool! Let’s go.” I said  
*timeskip*

Ryan had gone with Leo to meet our birth parents to cure them or something and wanted me to stay behind because my presence could be disruptive. I am the least disruptive person on earth! I was putting on a random jacket I had found since it was kinda cold outside. I was supposed to go get pizza with Spyder, Veracity and Harris.  
“Hey guys! You leaving? Got any plans? You free?” Mark said, hurriedly.   
“I don’t trust this.” Spyder said  
“What do you mean?” Mark asked  
“You hate hanging out with us and yea we do have plans. We were all gonna go grab some pizza.” I said  
“Is it possible he just wants to hang out?” Spyder asked  
“Or Georgia dumped him.” Veracity said and I started laughing. Mark looked dejected and I immediately stopped.   
“Ohhh… she did didn’t she? Should I grab ice cream? A box of tissues?” I asked  
“NO! I’m fine.” Mark said  
“Ya don’t look it.” I muttered  
“She got made cuz I ghosted her to be in the Arctic and it’s not like I could tell her why. And I’m gonna have to keep on ghosting her. But you’re right! I really don’t wanna hang out.” Mark said and started walking away  
“Ice cream’s in the freezer and the tissues are in the cupboard to the right!” I called out after him. We sat down on the couch.  
“Mark and Georgia were so perfect for each other. I mean if they don’t work out… what hope to Liz and I have?” Spyder worried  
“Well, for one I never have to ghost on you for a mission because we both work on the same team but I get where you’re going.” I told him  
“Spyder does have a point.” Harris said  
“They’re staying together if it’s the last thing I do.” Veracity said.   
“I didn’t know you were a fangirl… awwww thanks.” I said  
“Oh come on! It’s not like you didn’t make a giant 10 minute video edit for my and Lily’s 3 month anniversary.” Veracity retorted  
“You’re cute together.” I protested  
“BAKC TO THE POINT!” Harris yelled. “He’s always helping us…We should pay him back and be smart about it.”   
“Good idea, I’ll get the arm cannons.” Spyder said and got up. Harris went after him.  
“I’m gonna watch from a distance.” Veracity said  
“Amazing idea.” I told her and we left for Georgia’s house. Veracity and I were sitting across the street from Spyder and Harris on a bench eating some pizza. Spyder had gotten a bunch of flowers and set them up.   
“Five bucks Spyder stole them.” I told Veracity  
“I’m not gonna agree to that bet cuz I know for a fact he stole them. Time to watch this train wreck unfold.” Veracity murmured.  
“Really apologetic delivery from Mark Walker.” Spyder yelled ad dove behind the fence. Georgia opened the door and looked amazed. Her face dropped when she picked up a card.   
“I can kinda read lips… she’s saying ‘Deepest sympathies. A card for a grief counsellor’ Spyder stole from the funeral home.” I muttered. Then Georgia stormed inside  
“Should we give them one more try before we step in and save their sorry asses?” Veracity asked  
“Yup!” I said and grabbed another slice of pizza  
“Oh look at what Harris is writing.” I pointed out  
“‘I want your love today’. Now the wind is changing them to ‘I want your love to die’” Veracity said  
“Should we intervene?” I asked  
“Yup.” Veracity said and we approached them. “As amusing as it has been watching the two of you…”   
“How long have you been watching?” Harris asked us  
“Long enough to realize that if you don’t step up your game you will both die alone.” I said, grinning.   
“Excuse us, we will use words to reason with Georgia.” Veracity said  
“Here’s a tip: Don’t skywrite them.” Spyder said. I rolled my eyes and we rang the doorbell  
“Hi there… Georgia right?” I asked, smiling  
“Oh god not again.” She muttered  
“Chill, we’re not here to use dumb methods like the guys.” Veracity said. “We’re just here to convince you that you should take Mark back.”   
“No!”   
“Why not?” I debated  
“Because he ghosted.” Georgia protested  
“Everyone ghosts sometimes. Mark had family problems that were urgent and taking precedence over his fucking girlfriend and some idiotic cosplay thing.” I argued  
“Yea… he had no signal and when he finally does you say you wanna break up with him which by the way broke his heart into a million tiny pieces without giving him the chance to fucking explain anything, bitch.” Veracity said  
“I’m calling the police.” Georgia threatened. Veracity and I ran.   
“Uh we should go!” Veracity said urgently  
“We should go now before the police show up!” I panicked  
“Or worse.” Spyder said, pointing at Mark. “Your girlfriend’s nice.” Spyder said quickly. Mark brought us to the door and knocked  
“Get lost!” Georgia said  
“Here me out. All the weird stuff that’s been happening… it wasn’t me. These four decided to help.” Mark explained  
“Okay just the way you said help makes it sound like we didn’t-”   
“Spyder shut up.” I interrupted  
“Look, I know you don’t wanna see me again and you won’t. But I just wanna say I’m sorry for these guys annoying you and… especially for ghosting on you.” Mark apologized  
“Why did you?” Georgia asked  
“I have… responsibilities, to my brother, sister” Mark pointed at me.  
“Awww you consider me your sister.” I said grinning  
“Shut it! Anyways I have responsibilities, to my brother, my sister and to these guys, I guess.” Mark said. “it won’t happen again.”  
“I didn’t break up with you because you’re busy. I broke up with you because you didn’t tell me you were busy. You just… disappeared. It’s called communication.” Georgia said  
“Actually it would be called multitasking.” Veracity and I said at the same time. We got looks.   
“We’ll stay out of this for now.” I said  
“At least your friends tried to talk to me, even if it was in that… insane way.” Georgia said  
“Again, we are so sorry, I didn’t even know I knew those words.” Veracity apologized  
“I do and I’ve been an influence on you and I’m not sure whether to rejoice or be concerned.” I muttered  
“Do you get what I’m saying?” Georgia asked  
“Yeah”  
“Well then I guess, I can give you another chance.” Georgia decided. The four of us stood their pleasantly watching this go down.  
“This is your cue to leave.” Mark told us  
“Right.”   
“Okay.”“Thanks.”  
“Sorry.” We all left to go to a local diner and grab some snacks.


	15. Episode 13

We were at a giant domed greenhouse trying to fend off one of the monsters. Harris was able to give me a synthetic flight power, so currently I was whirling around to robot firing plasma at it and stabbing and slashing with my knives while Mech X4 handled whatever they were doing.   
“Is everything good.” I said into my Mech Link while dodging attacks.   
“Leo and Harper are clawing each others eyes out.” Mark said.   
I yelped as the monster nearly hit me. I tried cutting off one of its claws but it sent me hurtling backwards. I regained my footing and started attacking again.   
“Hey guys, you need to help me.” I said into my Mech Link  
“Trying.” Veracity told me. I started slashing and tried to kill the monster. It seized me in its claws and started crushing me. I started losing breath.   
“DYING. HERE.” I yelled. The monster ripped off my flight synthetic machine thingy and threw me away. I crashed into a bunch of trees. The branches ripped at my clothes and scratched my skin. I landed on the ground with my ankle folding weirdly beneath me and I felt a wave of nausea pass through me,  
“LIZ! LIZZY! WHERE ARE YOU?! ARE YOU OKAY?! ARE YOU DEAD?!” I heard Spyder say through my Mech Link.   
“I crashed into.” I gagged and did my best not to throw up right there on the spot “trees.”   
“I’m tracking your Mech Link, keep it on.” Veracity said. I steadied myself and used one of the trees to help me up. I tried putting weight on my ankle and it sent a wave of pain through me. I decided I would just sit on the ground. I put my leg out in front of me and grabbed a couple branches off the ground to make a splint. I used a sharp rock to cut a strip of fabric off my shirt. I placed the two branches by my ankle and wrapped the strip of fabric around my ankle. I then tried standing with the splint and the pain was bearable.   
“Liz! Found her!” I heard Veracity call out.   
“Hi.” I said.  
“You idiot! You absolute idiot! Taking on that monster by yourself.” Veracity scolded  
“Okay mom.” I said, grinning. She hugged me and I yelped because I had cut myself all over.  
“We should get back to the robot, the others are waiting and we can get you a real cast, splint, whatever” She told me and helped me back to the robot.   
“You’re okay.” Ryan yelled when he saw me and hugged me, causing me to let go of Veracity and to wince thanks to the cuts  
“Well yea I’m mentally okay. Physically, though…” I trailed off. Spyder ran up to me and kissed me. He pulled away and gave me a hug. “Yup… physically I’m fine.” I murmured.   
“You are not allowed to fight a monster for a couple days.” Spyder told me  
“I’m a grown woman, you can’t tell me what to do.” I said, stubbornly. “Now, who wants to watch Leo and Harper tear each others throats out.” I said, grinning.   
Veracity and Harris had replaced my makeshift splint with a real ankle brace so I could limp around. We were standing around watching them argue.   
“Your design has FLAWS” Harper yelled  
“Well your SWEATER HAS FLAWS” Leo yelled back  
“WELL WHAT ARE THOSE GOGGLES EVEN DOING.” Harper yelled back.   
“SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!” I screamed as Veracity and Mark pulled them away from each other  
“Leo, what happened out there?! The robot just stopped moving.” Ryan asked  
“First of all, these goggles are sweet. Second of all, somebody, who’s name begins with an H, didn’t use the right wiring protocol.” Leo explained  
“Yeah, HARRIS!” Harper accused  
“Seriously?” Harris asked  
“Guys! Just figure it out before Traeger throws another monster at us. Liz can’t fight by herself.” Ryan said  
“OH I can do JUST FINE, BY MYSELF. YOU KNOW WHAT, BECAUSE THE ROBOT STOPPED MOVING I WAS DISTRACTED AND HAD TO USE MY MECH LINK. SO IF ANYTHING, MY INJURY IS YOUR FAULT!” I accused Ryan  
“DON’T PIN THIS ON ME! WE ALL KNOW YOU CAN’T FIGHT WITHOUT MECH X4 BEHIND YOU.” Ryan retorted  
“OH IS THAT SO! CUZ FOR THE FIRST 13 YEARS OF MY LIFE, I WAS DOING JUST FINE WITHOUT YOU THREE, THEN ON MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL, MY LIFE IS UPTURNED THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR FREAKY POWERS”“OH IM THE ONE WITH FREAKY POWERS. HAVE YOU LOOKED AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR?”   
“Guys! Stop fighting.” Veracity yelled  
“You’re right, how embarrassing, Ryan needs to apologize.” I concluded  
“OH I NEED TO APOLOGIZE?! IS THAT HOW IT IS?”“YEA THAT’S HOW IT IS.”  
“LET’S GO THEN! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!”   
“BRING IT SHORTY!”“I’M TALLER THAN YOU!” Mark dragged Ryan away and Veracity and Spyder dragged me back.  
“THAT’S RIGHT YOU BETTER RUN!” I yelled before turning around. “Dumb asshole thinks he’s sooooo much better than me because I get injured in one fight!” I exclaimed  
“Today, once the authorities clear out, the four of us are gonna go check out the building. Ryan and Mark are gonna do what they need to do to calm Ryan down.” Harris explained  
“Fine! As long as I don’t have to talk to that arrogant, annoying jerk today! Veracity, Spyder, can I stay with one of you guys, tonight, better yet, move in with one of you guys.” I pleaded  
“You can stay with me until you sort out whatever’s going one with Ryan.” Veracity said. I nodded, sped home, left a note, packed my stuff and ran back to the robot.  
“3 minutes and 38 seconds, a new record.” Spyder commented.   
“We’ll go drop off the stuff at my place and then meet you guys back here.” Veracity said

*timeskip*

We entered the greenhouse in awe.   
“This place is amazing.” I said. “I’m gonna go check this place out, I’ll be back.” I told them, I gave Spyder a light kiss on the cheek, “Veracity! Come with.” I asked  
“Sure.” She said and we left.   
“So Harris texted me, he told me that Grace said she was fine with you staying with me because she trusts me and Ryan and Mark are moving to Miami with her if she can get a culinary job. So Mark and Ryan are gonna reck your mom’s interview.” Veracity explained  
“Huh… cool. Hey what do you think this plant does.” I asked her  
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Veracity said  
“It’s a plant! What’s it gonna do to me, attack me? Oooh I’m so scared” I said with mock fear  
“I still don’t think you should…” Veracity trailed off  
“It’s a plant Ver what’s the worst that coulAAAAHHHHH” I screamed as the plant attached itself to my neck and chin  
“HELP! VER! GUYS! I CANT MOVE! AAAAHHHH!” I screamed out.  
“It won’t budge! It’s like permanently attached. There’s a spray that could kill it, it could kill you too, though!”   
“NO KILLING ME! IT HURTS! WHY DOES IT HURT?!” I yelled  
“Okay! The guys are here, we’ll figure something out.” Veracity told me. I screamed again  
“We’ll get it off!” Harris said. They pulled and I screamed. I started whimpering, I felt really tired and didn’t have the energy to scream. I felt like I was floating. I screamed a little as I felt the plant moving. I then felt it fizzling off and dying and I could breath again.   
“I feel funny.” I told them, sitting up a little. I had a craving for pizza.   
“I want pizza. Do you want pizza? Let’s get pizza.” I said  
“The spores yada yada yada.” Harris said, I didn’t understand most of it“You’re hot, Spyder!” I said, noticing he had his shirt off. “are you single! I’m single, we should date.” I told him.   
“Uhhh…” He trailed off. They both started talking and look really close.  
“You gonna go to prom? Get a limo.” I asked them, standing up with the help of Veracity  
“We should get you back to the robot!” Harris said  
“Can we get pizza first.” Spyder asked  
“yes!” Veracity said  
“YES!” I cheered. “let’s go.”

*timeskip*

So I was no longer feeling loopy and Veracity had recorded what I said and was now teasing me. True friendship! I had recovered halfway through pizza. We whooshed up through the elevator, Veracity holding a pizza box  
“Wiring’s all fixed.” Leo said  
“And better than new.” Harper added  
“Are- are you two friends now?” Spyder asked  
“not-Not exactly friends.” Harper said  
“But… not exactly enemies!” Leo added. Harper and Leo did their science handshake.  
“Pizza?” I asked  
“I’m good, I don’t do carbs.” Harper says  
“Your gut says otherwise.” I commented.   
“So this is what you found at the facility?” Harper asked us, holding the dead plant that attacked me  
“Yup! And one of them almost killed Lizzy.” Spyder said  
“What does Traeger want with them?” Harris asked


	16. Episode 14

“Ready?” Veracity asked me  
“Yup!” I said. We were doing target practice, she had rigged a device that creates a moving target and I was supposed to attack it. At the same time, she was working on shields to defend the target. I decided just to use water instead of fire or ice or plasma. I shot three water balls and two hit were blocked but one hit the target.   
“Again!” Veracity said. After about 30 minutes of just this we decided to take a break and physically spar.   
“Why do we have to do this?” Veracity asked  
“Because, if you’re attacked outside the robot, it helps to defend yourself.” I told her. So we sparred for a little, I won and helped Veracity up.   
“Guys, make sure the jet is working and ready!” Ryan said through the Mech Link  
“Let’s go, also ow.” Veracity told me  
“Sorry.” We left and started locking in the jet fully. We whooshed up through the elevator.   
“You have a jet?” We heard Grace ask  
“Yep!” Veracity said as we exited the elevator “And the first time we tried to use it, we almost crashed into the city.”  
“And I almost died.” I added on  
“Who are you?” Grace asked Veracity  
“This is Veracity.” I said  
“The friend you’re staying with?”  
“Yep!”  
“BTW, the weapon’s new energy sig is on point.” Veracity started  
“And ready to be tested.” I finished  
“Come on mom, admit it, it’s kinda cool.” Mark said, climbing down from the loft  
“Okay, it’s cool. But who would be insane enough to give this to a bunch of kids?” She asked  
“HI THERE!” Leo said, surprising us all. Grace punched him in the stomach and I clapped  
“Finally, someone other than me did that.” I cheered  
“Yea, anyone else surprised that the rest of us haven’t done that yet?” Ryan asked. We all just shrugged  
“Welcome to Mech X4.” Leo said and flinched away from Grace.  
“Ryan take us down.” I said and we landed.   
“So we’ve added the anti-ooze tech to the X-weapon.” Harris told us.   
“Great… uhh has someone been playing with my harness?” I asked. “it’s like longer than normal.”  
“Uhhhh… I may have tried it a couple times.” Veracity said. “Here I’ll help you adjust it.” Veracity told me. We both fiddled with it a little while the others talked until it felt normal, then Veracity left.   
“READY?!” Ryan asked  
“READY!” We all said  
“Mech Execute.” Ryan yelled, and turned on the X-weapon. I put in 50% of my power into the weapon.   
“Frequency’s off by about 1.21 gigahertz.” Veracity told us. 60%.   
“Getting there!” Veracity said. 80% now. I’ve never actually gone over 80% because I may combust. So naturally, I put more force in, now I was at 100% and realized I couldn’t actually stop. So I’d either continue until I die or run out of energy and go into a permanent coma. Fuck.   
“GUYS! HELP!” I yelled. I felt like I was on fire, dipped in gasoline and been exposed to sulphuric acid. Leo yelled something and I just dropped. Spyder ran over to me.  
“How’d we do?” I asked and coughed  
“Fine… I mean Ryan has a burning X on his chest and oh god! There’s blood, coming out of your ears and nose and the side of your mouth.” He panicked  
“So get me to the med-bay, idiot.” I felt light-headed. I felt someone unbuckle me from my harness and felt Spyder pick me up. I passed out after that.   
“Ryan Peanut Walker, get off your butt, move it!” I heard Grace yell, as soon as I woke up. Peanut??? Oh man this is great blackmail.  
“I didn’t know your middle name was Peanut.” I murmured and closed my eyes.   
“Eliza! You’re awake.” I heard Veracity say.   
“Yep!” I muttered and tried sitting up.   
“What’s going on?” I asked.   
“You three are coming with me.” Grace told us  
“I’m not your child! I currently live with Veracity and furthermore, you are not my guardian, so technically it would be considered kidnapping.” I told Grace  
“You’re right! I overstepped.” Grace apologized  
“Okay guys good news.” Harper said, coming in, “It’ll take some time but I think we can adjust the X-weapon so it won’t kill Beth and won’t make Ryan so crispy.” Harper said  
“Graceface!” He exclaimed, noticing Grace, “I am so sorry I haven’t called, things have been crazy-” Grace punched him in the stomach  
“Oh so when I do it, I need to be restrained by Spyder, Harris and Veracity but when Ms Walker does it, it’s totally fine.” I complained  
“You have powers and would’ve killed Harper.” Veracity pointed out  
“How is he still alive? And what is he doing here?” Grace asked  
“mom, we need him to defeat Traeger. He’s helping upgrade the robot.” Mark said  
“So you’re harbouring the guy who kidnapped me and tried to kill you. The world’s most wanted man?” Grace exclaimed  
“Oooh is that true? Did I finally get ahead of those pirates?” Harper asked us  
“Dude! Not helping!” Ryan said  
“That’s it! Get all of your stuff, we’re never coming back here and we’re leaving Bay City.” Grace said and they left.  
“Middle name’s Peanut huh?” Veracity snickered  
“My middle name’s Belinda and even I’m embarrassed for Ryan.” Leo stated  
“Leo Belinda Mendel and Ryan Peanut Walker, amazing blackmail material.” I said, grinning. Veracity started laughing.“Stop it!” Leo threatened and we did.   
“Ima get up.” I said and slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed. I stood unsteadily.   
“You good?” Spyder asked and I nodded.   
“I’m gonna go train.” I told everyone.   
“Nope! You’re staying with me, and I’m gonna teach you how to play video games.” Spyder told me and picked me up.  
“Guys, a little help!” I called out  
“Nope!” Veracity said grinning  
“BETRAYAL!” I cried as I was dragged away. “Put me down.” I told Spyder. He unceremoniously dropped me on the floor.   
“Ow! Not like that!” I told him.  
“It’ll be fun! Here!” Spyder said and tossed me the remote. “Plus, we don’t get to spend a lot of time together without the others.” Spyder told me  
“Fine! But as soon as I figure out how to play, I’m gonna destroy you.” I told him  
“In. Your. Dreams.” Spyder said. He showed me the basics and then we started fighting. In a solid 3 minutes, he absolutely destroyed me.   
“Bam! That’s how it’s done.” He said  
“Oh it’s on now.” I proceeded to lose, badly. Every. Single. Time.   
“Whoooo! New record 8 seconds.” He cheered.  
“26 rounds and I lost them all.” I muttered faintly. “How?”   
“Awww, it’s okay!” Spyder said and started hugging me. We stayed like that for a while.   
“I really hate to do this but we should probably go check on the others, it’s been a half hour.” I told him.   
“or we could wait five more minutes.” He suggested  
“That works too.”  
“MONSTER ALERT!” Harris yelled through the Mech Links  
“Couldn’t give us five more minutes.” I muttered and started getting up. “Let’s go.” We ran and met up with the others in the couch area.  
“What do we do?” Harris asked  
“Nothing without Ryan Peanut Walker.” Veracity said and we all laughed  
“Like the fruit.” Spyder said  
“It’s a legume, Spyder.” I told him  
“Not the time.” Harris said  
“No.” Veracity agreed  
“Let’s go.” I said and we all ran to the main part of the robot to gather weapons.   
“I’m sure Ryan and Mark will be here.” I reassured them and at that moment they whooshed up through the elevators.   
“Well…” I asked  
“Let’s go!” Ryan said and we all ran to our stations. “Mech Xecute.” Ryan yelled and we left.   
“I’m gonna go protect the civilians and uh… call me if we need the X weapon.” I told them. I grabbed my flight synthesizer, that’s what ima call it, and flew out of the robot. I saw Grace in the middle of it all.  
“Hi Ms. Walker.” I said and created a shield around us. I dashed away at the last minute and Mech X4 landed on her, taking her into the robot. I started rushing at the robot, throwing ice and lava at it and flying around it in circles, confusing it, while the robot sent missiles into it. The monster caught me in its claws.   
“Not again!” I whined. I sighed and created a giant shield around me that blew up one of its hands. “HAH!” I yelled triumphantly and resumed confusing and dizzying it. It grabbed the robot so I decided to grab its tail and it just threw me into Mech X4. Not my best idea  
“Liz, X-weapon time.” Ryan said, though the Mech Link. I flew into the port and dropped right into my harness.   
“Yo!” I greeted  
“Why does your hair look all blown apart and why does the monster look dizzy?” Spyder asked  
“I flew circles around it.” I said, simply. “X-weapon.” I reminded them  
“Wait, wait are you sure that thing is safe? I mean it almost killed you two.” Grace said  
“Your concern is touching but I’ve been in more near death situations than I can count, so no it may not be safe but we have to. Ready guys?!” I yelled  
“Ready!” Everyone responded.   
“MECH XECUTE” Ryan yelled. The power surged from the both of us. This time I started at 70% of my power  
“You gotta amp up the power.” Veracity yelled at us. I put in more and more energy. Veracity kept calling out numbers. I willed my body to put forth more power. 93% of my energy was into it. I stopped myself at 97%, I don’t wanna explode. The weapon turned off and the monster turned to ooze.   
“We did it!” I said, in near shock.  
“WE DESTROYED TRAEGER! GUYS WE DESTROYED TRAEGER.” Ryan yelled. I unbuckled myself and everyone came down to the control pad for hugs. Leo and Harper started arguing so Ryan changed the screen to the cheering people. I gave Veracity Mark Harris and Ryan giant hugs. I gave a little squeal of delight as Spyder picked me up and hugged me from behind.  
“Guys… it’s over.” I screamed  
“Who wants sushi? I’ll pay.” Veracity told us  
“We actually should go.” Ryan and Mark said before leaving the robot. I just shrugged and we left for sushi.   
We were about halfway through dinner. Veracity had also invited Lily. Spyder and I sat on one side of the booth, Veracity and Lily sat on the other and Harris pulled up a chair on the side. I got a text from Ryan.  
‘Sorry to bother u guys on ur double date + Harris thing but something happened with Harper. Bring everyone (minus lily duh) back to the robot. Peace!’  
“Is everything okay, Liz?” Lily asked me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
“Yea I’m fine.” I said and we continued with our date thing.


	17. Episode 15

Veracity was off touring the school she was dying to get into so the rest of us were chilling on the X-deck playing a game. Spyder was still recovering from food poisoning because I forgot to take one mouldy fish stick out of his locker and the idiot ate it. I rolled my dice and added a hexagon to my stack  
“Alright, who’s turn is it?” I asked. Ryan grabbed the dice, and rolled  
“Alright! My fiefdome, is fief-dope.” He said, hitting Spyder in the arm who groaned  
“You sure, you’re okay. We can go back to the Med Bay if you want.” I told him  
“Easy dude, I’m still feeling a little-” Spyder was cut off  
“Stupid? For wearing that hat?” Mark interrupted  
“No… still feeling a little barfy.” Spyder muttered  
“Really cuz I feel great, defeat Traeger, check, defeat all of you at this game, in progress.” Ryan told us  
“Not so fast… I’ve been playing this game so long, I have moves they haven’t even invented yet.” Leo bragged  
“Surprising confidence considering Ryan’s kicking your butt.” Harris commented  
“That’s a first. Usually Ryan eats it at this game.” Spyder said  
“And we never get past the first round because all we end up doing is hassling him.” I agreed  
“How is this any different?” Ryan asked  
“Well, we’re celebrating Traeger’s loss not Ryan’s uh… shitiness at this game.” I decided  
“Not this time! Boom! Trance! SKIP! YOUR! TURN!” Ryan emphasized each word to Leo. Spyder promptly threw up. I rubbed his back in concern  
“See… food poisoning. That’s what happens when you keep fish sticks in your locker.” Harris said  
“Didn’t you throw those away Liz?” Ryan asked  
“I missed a couple and so did Veracity.” I said, shrugging.  
“Hey where is Veracity anyway? She’s supposed to teach me gram o grams. Have you heard of this thing called memes?” Leo asked us in awe  
“Leo, face it! You’re old. And Veracity’s touring a science school” I answered  
“That’s never invited Harris.” Spyder snickered  
“It’s an all girls school.” Harris argued “but my petition is working its way through court.” Harris said  
“I’m his certified lawyer.” I said and we continued playing and playfully arguing  
“Hey guys, I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” I said, after I finished my turn and left. When I got back I saw Mark under the table.   
“Okay! What’s going on?” I asked  
“Bomb, Ryan’s grabbing a coolant.” Mark told me. I wiggled under the table and blasted it with a steady stream of ice.   
“Think this’ll help?” I asked and Ryan returned with the coolant. Mark cracked the coolant open and placed it on the bomb. I anxiously watched as it ticked down and waited for the freezing cold to freeze the gears and it worked. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding  
“I would’ve heard if you guys had exploded, right?” Leo asked  
“We’re all good.” I said grinning. I sat up and bumped my head against the table I had forgot I was under. “Owww!” I muttered and crawled out.  
“Let’s break open this thing.” Mark said. I grabbed a bobby pin from my hair and used it to start unscrewing the different items  
“Why does that work?” Mark asked  
“It just does. Bobby pins are universal lock pickers.” I said as Spyder and Leo entered the room. We finally finished taking it apart  
“Who did this?” Spyder asked  
“It could’ve been Harper but it runs on an egg timer, meaning it was planted in the last hour.” I explained  
“Grey?” Ryan asked  
“Impossible! Mark and I built a security system specifically designed to keep her out while you guys went to save Ryan and Liz’s dad before the city wide blackout. Man, that was a crazy 24 hours.” Leo explained  
“We have to check the security footage, see if anyone got in or out.” Ryan said  
“Wait… there are cameras?” Spyder asked  
“It’s fine Spyder, we know you sleep here four nights a week! I’m the one who routinely comes by and makes sure you have a blanket.” I told him. (poor baby! Give him a backstory dammit!)  
“Let’s go.” Ryan said and we ran to the computers and ran through the footage. Mark was zooming through it  
“Go back!” I told him. “The time code jumps from 6:09 to 6:42. So someone must’ve cut the footage.”  
“The exterior cameras are fine, nothing missing.” Mark added  
“So that means no one got in or out.” Ryan said  
“So what you’re saying is it’s one of us.” Harris stated. Ryan closed all the doors.  
“And no one moves until we find out who.” Ryan told us  
“Ryan you’re being ridiculous. Let’s just go back to the X-deck and we can all go over what we were doing for that half hour.” I said, calmly (just like Dumbledore in goblet of fire)  
“Guys, we’ve done some crazy things, I went nuts in the Arctic, Harris had turned into a monster.” Ryan told us  
“And Harper gave Ryan’s mom a mind controlling monster. Couldn’t he have done that to any of us?” Spyder asked. “I mean, am I even in control?” Spyder asked looking at his hand. He kissed me full on the lips and I blushed, trying to keep my composure. “I’m pretty sure I am.”  
“Guys, let’s just go to the X deck sit down and figure it out.” I told everyone and started walking to the X-deck. Mark started doing a thing and chanting his name.   
“Way to make us all feel great Mark.” I said, sarcastically and took a seat.  
“What are you doing to help?” He asked me  
“Here’s an idea. We can all sit down, talk things through, go over alibis and find holes. When we find holes, we know who did it. Is that good enough or would you like me to add in some spies and lasers too.” I told him. Everyone sat down.   
“I’ll go first.” Mark said. “this afternoon I was in my workshop working on a sick engine rebuild, I look good in my memory! I texted Georgia, ‘Sup Georgia, see you tomorrow’ and oh! I saw Ryan too.”   
“I remember that.” Ryan exclaimed  
“And Ryan was all like ‘when I grow up… I wanna be you.’”  
“What!” Ryan asked, shocked  
“I don’t remember exactly what you said.” Mark admitted. “Then I headed over to Leo’s he’ll back me up. He gave me a wrench, I thanked him and Leo said ‘When I grow up, I wanna be you, Mark Walker’.”   
“Okay! We get it! Mark, you have a disturbingly high amount of self esteem and I want a fraction of it.” I said  
“Leo, can you back up Mark’s story?” Harris asked  
“Yes, but there are two problems with Mark’s story. One, when I grow up I wanna be Tina Fey.” Leo said  
“Who?” I asked. Leo glared at me and I glared back  
“Two.” Leo continued, “The tool you borrowed from me, it wasn’t a wrench. It wasn’t something you’d use on an engine at all. It was a needle, used for boring small holes.”   
“Like the gears.” I asked hesitantly  
“Exactly.” Leo confirmed. I nodded and ran to Mark’s workshop  
“Damn your super speed.” I heard Mark yell. There was an object covered in cloth. I grabbed the cloth and took it off and found an… embroidery kit. I burst out laughing as the others ran in  
“What’s this?” Ryan asked Mark  
“It’s an embroidery kit. Oh! My! God! Mark sews. Hey, can you make me like a Percy Jackson costume for Halloween?” I asked before bursting out laughing again.   
“Georgia got me into it for cosplay. We do it while watching basketball. It’s romantic.” Mark defended  
“This is intricate.” Harris said, holding up a pillow. “What a tight stitch! This took a long time!” Harris touched the station. “And it’s still warm, which means Mark must’ve worked on it before the game! It’s not him, he’s innocent.” I took out my phone and took pictures  
“Hey Mark do you prefer portrait or landscape?” I snickered. He glared at me. “Both!” I concluded and took several more pictures before we left  
“Spyder! You’re up.” I said  
“I don’t have some awesome sewing secret but I was totally busy not building some crazy explodey thing. I was in the med-bay doing some light math as usual in an attempt to cure my food poisoning. It was 10. The equation! The cure! And I asked Harris ‘Harris! Don’t you know what this means?’ And he responded with ‘wow, you’re amazing, just like the real Alfred eimstein!’ And I said ‘I know’ And then four Harrises did a line dance.”   
“Spyder, that was a fever dream. You woke up and threw up all over my shoes.” Harris said  
“Oh yea… I remember that.” Spyder said  
“So the only person who could vouch for you was asleep.” Mark said  
“Actually, I was there two. Spyder was hugging me to death while I slept. His grip, it wouldn’t budge! I drifted in and out of sleep the entire time, though…” I said  
“Alright, so it’s not Liz, nor Spyder or Mark.” Harris said. “Oh and Ryan could vouch for me.”  
“Yea I know… but you still had enough time to jump in the elevator and plant the explosive.” Ryan argued  
“Except, I cut the power to the elevator while I was doing upgrades, so it couldn’t have been Harris.” Leo confirmed  
“Bam! Innocence is sweet!” Harris exclaimed  
“Ryan… you haven’t gone.” Mark said  
“I wanted to do some training exercises, I saw Mark in the hallway. His text said, ‘see you later Merek the Muscly.’” Ryan said  
“You read my texts.” Mark was outraged  
“Continue!” I told Ryan  
“I did some training exercises.” Ryan continued  
“Were you hooked up to a control pad?” Leo asked  
“Yea.”  
“No you didn’t because when I cut the power to the elevator, I also cut the power to the control pad.” Leo said.  
“Ryan… do you wanna tell us something?” I asked slowly  
“Yes… I lied.” Ryan muttered and Spyder threw up again in his hat. I started rubbing his back and gave him a new hat.  
“You have 3 minutes to explain before I attack you.” I threatened  
“I wasn’t lying about the explosive. I was lying because - because I cheated in the game.” Ryan confessed  
“How?” I asked  
“well… I was setting up the game with Leo and he said he was proud of me for playing because I always lose, so I snapped. I teched out the dice. I went into the med-bay and saw Liz and Spyder both asleep. I grabbed a couple of computer chips. Harris saw me and I panicked and said I was checking on Spyder. Then I used the dice to win.” Ryan explained. He grabbed the dice, took off one side and showed up the chip  
“Ryan… such a noble leader but you are also a cheater cheater pumpkin eater and the worst one in the patch!” Leo yelled  
“I just wanted to win… I’m sorry.” Ryan apologized  
“Hey,” Spyder said, grabbing our attention, “I’m proud of you.” I smacked Spyder across the back of his head and he yelped  
“Okay… that’s everybody except Leo.” I said and looked at him  
“I would never blow up my own robot!” Leo protested. We all rose. “or-or you guys in it as well. I was in my workshop the entire time!”   
“Do you have any proof?” Harris asked  
“Well it’s no embroidery station.” Leo admitted, “but I did install a neck massager on my chair and the paint should still be wet. And I painted it red.” We all went to his room  
“Huh… this place is cleaner than my room.” I noted  
“Welcome to Casa de Leo! Don’t go in my bedroom, haven’t made my bed. Haha here she is…” I ignored what Leo said after that as I noticed something weird on one of his desks. I picked up a couple gears and compared them to the ones I found in the bomb. Practically identical! Spyder and Harris opened up a rolled up sheet of paper and there was plans on the bomb… but it didn’t look like Leo’s shading or handwriting.  
“It was you.” Mark said  
“His handwriting looks off, shaky almost and same for the shading on the blueprints. But all the evidence does point to you.” I muttered, my hands shaking  
“Everything is here! Everything you would need to build an explosive!” Harris accused  
“Including this poster sized schematic of the thing.” Spyder yelled. We started moving towards Leo.   
“You- you’re closing in on me? This is- this is actually happening!” Leo asked.  
“Leo? We can help you just tell us why you built the thing.” I reassured him  
“Guys… I can’t think when you’re surrounding me!” Leo groaned  
“Give him some space guys.” Spyder told us  
“Spyder… the dude tried to blow us up. Do you honestly think we should give him space?” I asked sarcastically  
“Did you plant any other ones?” Mark asked Leo  
“NO! I’ve been in here all day doing, you know, crazy invention stuff. B-b-b-but good invention stuff.” Leo yelled  
“Leo, come clean!” I threatened and sparked fire in one of my hands  
“There is something I’m not telling you… BOVINE CHERRY SANDAL!” Leo yelled and the wall he was against spun.  
“We can catch him! He’s old he can’t run that fast.” Spyder yelled and we all ran.   
“I’m checking the cameras! He’s in the control room!” Ryan said. We all ran into the control room and saw Leo at the technopath circle, with weapons.  
“There’s no tech in the weapons!” Ryan cried  
“You made weapons to use against him!” I asked in shock. “I should’ve done this the first time I saw you.” I launched myself at him, and he fired the weapon. Metal chains coming out of it, with heavy ball thingies at the bottom, securing my hands together and my legs together oh and my arms were pinned by my sides. I gasped in shock and pain as the metal started burning me.   
“Ha HAH! Metal that you’re allergic to, specially crafted after Harper’s designs.” Leo exclaimed. Mark launched himself at Leo and was pinned down too. Ryan threw gravity pucks at Leo and he quickly destroyed them.   
“Dang!” Harris murmured in awe  
“I’m disappointed in you two. I protected you guys when you were babies, I never gave you guys up when Harper held me in prison! And now you TURN ON ME!” Leo yelled at us  
“No! You protected Ryan! You left me for adoption to anyone and didn’t look back! You didn’t give up Ryan! You didn’t even care when I didn’t show signs of powers, you just abandoned me! So really Leo, who’s the one at fault here!” I said, as calm as I could.   
“Thunderdump!” Leo yelled and the power cut. I heard the machine whir and Harris, Ryan and Spyder fell. Leo escaped. I winced as the metal started burning even more.   
“Damn thunder dump!” I muttered  
“I have the most terrible thunder dump joke, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate.” Spyder lamented.  
“Okay! I’m gonna move slightly over to Spyder and try to free his hands by burning the metal chains. Then he can free the rest of us.” I told everyone. I winced as I slowly and painfully made my way to Spyder. I placed my hands on the chains, wincing as the chains burnt them and slowly started melting the chains and getting them loose.   
“I’m free!” Spyder said. He quickly untied his legs. He then untied Ryan, and Ryan untied Mark while Spyder untied me and Mark then untied Harris. I winced as I stood up. I inspected my hands and ankles. My ankles were burnt pretty badly and the skin was raw. My wrists were also burnt pretty badly and were bleeding a little and my palms were only slightly burnt.   
“I’m gonna grab bandages and then head to Veracity’s. I have to work on a science project with her.” I told everyone and left.


	18. Episode 16

“Okay guys, only a couple more weeks until the show! So, costume time!” Juliet squealed while clapping her hands. We had to postpone the show in the end and decided to do Hamilton instead. I was was Eliza in the show.  
“Alright guys… Eliza and I have sewed the costumes and even got a couple props from broadway.” Veracity said  
“One of the teachers at the arts school knows Philippa Soo.” I explained. “We got some of the letters that Eliza wrote and Renee’s parasol from Take a Break as well as a bunch of fake pamphlets from the Reynold’s Pamphlet.”   
“If you have problems with costumes come to me, if not, your costumes are on the rack, try them on, we’re starting with the Schuyler Sisters. You try on your understudy costumes tomorrow.” Veracity said. I grabbed my costume and went into one of the changing rooms. I struggled getting the dress on. I quickly grabbed my high heels that I was supposed to wear and quickly helped Willow, Peggy/Maria, put on her Peggy dress. 

*timeskip to after rehearsal*

I was hiding behind the couch, stakes were high. Spyder had already betrayed me, so I had to take him out. I was hiding in the elevator with Veracity.   
“Ryan already took Mark out, you can take him out. I’ll be your backup.” I told Veracity. She ran out of the elevator and fired at Ryan, they engaged in a brief laser fight when Harris took them both out.   
“HA HAH!” Harris exclaimed triumphantly. “Hey, where’s Liz?” Harris asked. I did a backflip out of the elevator and took out both of Harris’s Mech Links he was using.   
“Right here.” I said, triumphant. “I won, bitches!”   
“See, Eliza won without cheating. But nice use of loopholes.” Veracity commented  
“I believe I’m owed some frozen yogurt.” I said and we left the robot.

*timeskip to next day*

I walked into school with Ryan and Spyder.  
“Hey guys, I promised Juliet I’d advertise so uh… come to the school’s production of Hamilton, tickets are only 3.99.” I said, pressing a flyer into Spyder’s hands and dashed off to my locker to grab my books and more flyers. I dropped almost all of them when I saw Harris and my jaw dropped.  
“Is that- is that Harris?” I asked to no one in particular. I scrambled to pick up the flyers and joined the others  
“Hey where’s your vampire boyband?” Veracity asked  
“Yea, I don’t see them anywhere.” I said, snickering  
“Nice, new glasses, right, they look good on you.” Harris complimented Veracity  
“Okay… Harris just complimented Veracity, it’s officially the start of world war three.” I muttered  
“No weak attempt a a comeback?” Veracity asked, confused  
“Of course not, we’re friends now, right?” Harris said. “hang on, give me a minute.” We watched as Harris picked up Wade, twisted his arm behind his back and flung him over the table, to defend a nerd.  
“I’m confused.” I said  
“Me too.” Veracity muttered.  
“oh, that reminds me. Most of these flyers are yours start posting them.” I said, handing Veracity the majority of my flyers. “I’ve been handing them out all morning and uh… I have time before class and need to go over burn again.” I sat down next to Spyder, placed my head on his shoulder and started humming burn under my breath. Every time someone would pass our table, I would hand out a flyer.   
“Spyder, Liz, you guys don’t think I got this. Liz, I posted the Hamilton flyers on every social media networking site and mad sure it was recommended to everyone in school. You’ve sold over a hundred tickets. And Spyder, you can stop gram tagging now.” Harris said as some muscly sweaty gross dude burst in through the door.   
“Spyder! I’m calling you out.” He yelled  
“Harris, what did you do?” Spyder asked  
“If you kill my boyfriend, Harris, I swear to god.” I threatened  
“I ran a bot that’s been gram tagging Boston Axe for weeks. No way you were gonna lose.” Harris told Spyder. “I also ran a random insult generator through it.”   
“YOU! You’re the kid who’s been saying he’s gonna punch me so hard, he’s gonna knock off my mother’s moustache?” He yelled  
“Harris.” I said, between my teeth, “do something or I will and if I do something, I’m probably gonna get sued.”   
“Apparently.” Spyder said, his voice breaking  
“Excellent use of smack talk kid. DONT DO IT AGAIN!” He threatened Spyder. I glared at him.   
“You need to learn some respect, I’ll see you in the ring.” I rolled my eyes as he left.   
“This is gonna go badly.” I muttered and packed my things up and headed to class.   
I was in music and we had free time for the last ten minutes. I had received a text from Veracity saying she had gotten into the school of her dreams and was gonna drop out and go at the end of this year. I was doing some random coding stuff on my computer when I received an email from the Denver Arts School. I quickly clicked on it. 

‘To Elizabeth Harper-Walker-Campbell,

From what I understand, you enjoyed the two week tour of our campus. We have received several letters of recommendation and references, as well as performances and starring in several school productions, emailed to us by one of your friends, his name was Harris, along with the note ‘she doesn’t like to brag but she’s not showing you her full potential’. I’ve reviewed these performances and references and I am shocked! You are clearly an extremely talented young girl! As of tomorrow, we would like to offer you a spot in our school on a scholarship. We have many connections and within a couple months could get you onto Broadway. As a matter of fact, a couple of my friends are currently writing a musical called Six. Should you be willing to accept the scholarship, not only would you be able to be a part of the musical but you would be learning from some of the greatest creative minds on the planet. 

Yours truly, 

The Dean of Admissions

PS: Your last name is quite confusing, I’m sure there’s a story behind that.’

I quickly sent a screenshot of the email to the Mech X4 team along with the caption, ‘Thanks Harris! If you guys do ever need me for Grey or something, I’ll fly back but till then, bye and I’ll miss you guys’ The bell rang. Veracity and I bumped into each other at the same time.   
“Congrats!” She told me  
“Thanks you too.” I told her.   
“We should do something nice to Harris.” Veracity mused  
“I can hack into his computer and we can upgrade it.” I suggested. She nodded and we both ran to the computer lab. I hacked into the computer and went to files, when I found something odd.   
“What’s that?” Veracity asked me  
“This is the deleted footage from that night with the bomb!” I exclaimed. “Text Spyder, Mark and Ryan! Oh god! Ryan is gonna be alone with Harris is about 30 minutes!” I panicked. "Grab a couple weapons, I left most of my weapons with Spyder because of a bet, he better bring them.” I told Veracity. We nodded and left as soon as everyone replied.   
We were hiding behind a couple trees waiting for the signal.   
“You can come out now guys!” We heard Ryan call. We emerged from behind the trees.   
“You’re all supposed to be gone, distracted!” Harris told us  
“Changed my mind!” Veracity said  
“Said I’d need a week to get there!” I said  
“I told the principal I needed to stretch out my hammies.” Mark said  
“And I had to run for my life… so timing worked out!” Spyder said  
“How did you figure it out?” Harris demanded  
“We’ll take this one VoldyShort.” Veracity said  
“Well I had the genius idea to hack into your computer and update it as a thanks from the two of us and we found the deleted footage from the night you tried to bomb us.” I explained.  
“We all thought you didn’t have time to set the explosive.” Mark continued  
“Harris has some pretty mad jumping skills when he’s all hopped up on evil.” Veracity finished  
“Something’s wrong with you, let us help you.” Ryan told Harris  
“Hey, Harris. Once we get back to the robot and Harris checks you out I’m sure- wait wait! Something seems not right about that.” Spyder said  
“Traeger, help me do your bidding.” Harris said in a demonic voice.  
“He’s talking to Traeger.” Mark pointed out  
“I think we’re missing the point that Traeger’s alive.” I said. Harris fell to the floor and we all backed up. Harris turned into some sort of weird demon thingy.  
“What the! WhAT iS ThAT!” Veracity screamed as we all stumbled back a little more  
“That’s Harris as an evil monster.” I said slowly. Harris judo flipped mark and sent Ryan flying back into a tree. Harris started closing in on Veracity. I quickly jumped in front of her and took off my bounce belt.   
“Spyder!” I yelled. We both started putting our bounce belts on Veracity.  
“I don’t need protecting.” She protested.   
“No but they’re gonna need one sensible brain to survive and I’ve led them into death traps several times.” I told her. Harris grabbed me by my jacket. I started trying to punch kick whatever worked, except for my powers. He’s still Harris! I screamed as he flung me into a tree. I collapsed on the ground and forced myself to get up.  
“Spyder!” I gasped as Harris took him by the jacket. Spyder surprisingly pinned Harris down. I ran over and helped hold Harris down. Ryan and Mark soon joined us, while Veracity rigged some sort of invention. Harris threw the four of us off. I landed on my left wrist and heard a pop.  
“Harris! YOU LIED TO ME! I THOUGHT WE WERE FINALLY FRIENDS!” Veracity yelled and punched Harris with a bounce belt fist thingy  
“BUT THE WHOLE TIME IT WAS A TRICK! AND I! DONT! LIKE! TO! BE! TRICKED!” Veracity yelled, pummelling Harris into the Earth! Go off! I slowly stood up and held my wrist in place and walked over to wear Veracity and Harris were.

*timeskip*So we had tied up Harris. I saw Veracity standing alone watching him.   
“Veracity are you okay!” I asked tentatively  
“Yea… No I’m not! Harris did something really, really sweet for me today. I guess that should’ve tipped me off that something was wrong.” She told me  
“No Ver! Harris does care about you, truly.” I reassured her.  
“I hate seeing him like this.” She said, she looked like she was about to cry. She took a couple shaky breaths.   
“Do you wanna go home! You can cry, you know. No one’s stopping you.” I told her. She nodded and dragged me out of the room. We had made it to the X deck when she finally broke down. I sat down beside her and brought her into a hug, and started stroking her hair.  
“Veracity! It’s okay! You know we’ll figure out how to get Harris back, we always do.” I told her  
“I-i guess just seeing Harris like that after Traeger did something nice for me, just to get rid of me, it finally snapped me. Lily broke up with me earlier today and I’ve been keeping my composure but I finally snapped and I just. She said she didn’t wanna be with me if I was moving and I just, how could she, like, we, I.” Veracity started hyperventilating.   
“Take deep breaths, okay!” I told her. “In and out.” I told her, and she mimicked my breathing  
“I can get back at Lily later, right now, we can focus on curing Harris and solving one of our problems. I’m not gonna say things’ll be easy, because they won’t. But you will get through this, you always get through your problems.” I told her, she nodded wiped her eyes and stood up.   
“Let’s go home!” She told me. I nodded and we both left.


	19. Episode 17

Ryan Veracity and I were trying to perform brain surgery on Harris to get the goo out or figure out a cure  
“Easy there, Ryan!” Veracity said  
“A little to the left.” I said, looking at the iPad  
“Are you sure he’s out? I mean if he wakes up, he’ll waste us.” Ryan told us  
“Nah we pumped him so full of sedatives there’s no way he’ll wake up.” I reassured him  
“Just stay in the zone.” Mark told Ryan. “Just try not to think about the fact that you’re basically performing brain surgery on your friend. Just remove that thought completely.”  
“Hey Mark, shut up!” Veracity snapped and Mark nodded and drew back.  
“can you deactivate the part of his brain that makes him call all shoes loafers.” Spyder asked  
“I mean we could but it would cause severe trauma and he’d have problems with memory.” I told Spyder  
“Guys! Kinda need to focus.” Ryan told us. We all apologized  
“You got the sample, Ryan.” Veracity said  
“Now get out of there before you make him as smart as Spyder.” I told Ryan.  
“Hey!” Spyder complained  
“And there’s a sample. Veracity and I can probably make an antidote.” I said  
“Dang SON!” Spyder yelled and we all jumped back and I let out a string of curses.  
“I’m sorry. I just felt like somebody needed to say it.” Spyder apologized. “I miss Harris.”  
“We all do.” I told him.   
Veracity and I had both taken a part of the sample and were examining them.   
“Mine doesn’t respond well to stimuli.” I told her.   
“Neither does mine. The ooze has been weaponized by Traeger which is why the old antidote doesn’t work.” Veracity told Ryan  
“So we have to amp ours up.” Ryan told us  
“Way ahead of you, plaid-lad.” Veracity said.   
“She needs someone to focus her sarcasm on with Harris gone. Anyway… the ooze is susceptible to a specific type of pro-catalytic enzyme. We just have to steal it from a hospital.” I explained  
“She means borrow.” Veracity corrected  
“No I mean steal.” I told her

*timeskip*

“Okay just lay low and not draw attention to ourselves.” Ryan told us  
“Get the enzyme get out and cure Harris.” Veracity said  
“We need to stay under the radar.” I said  
“Spyder!” One of the nurses called  
“Betty! Did Lucy have her puppies.” Spyder asked and I facepalmed  
“What? I injure myself a lot. The ER and I are tight. Hey Kravitz, congrats on the promotion man.” I noticed a bunch of white lab coats. I grabbed four and gave one to each person. I slipped mine on.  
“perfect! Ryan said  
“We should take the west tower elevators. They’re faster.” Spyder said and we all followed him.   
“Oh no! An electronic lock. Whatever should we do.” I said, monotonously   
“I got it! I’ll break down the door with my body.” Spyder said. As Spyder ran to the door, Ryan opened in and Spyder fell and clattered into something  
“I feel like those were bedpans.” I said  
“Full ones.” Veracity added  
“ewww.” Spyder complained. I shook my head and we walked in. We each looked in a different corner.   
“I can’t reach the top.” I told them. “But it looks like just newspapers so…”  
“What are you kids doing in here?” Someone asked us. I whipped around to see guard “This place is restricted to medical staff only.”  
“Yea… see we all already graduated high school and got into med school on scholarships.” I fibbed  
“Oh… you guys get younger every year.” The guard commented  
“Nah man, you’re just getting old.” Spyder told him. We all laughed weakly  
“We’re supposed to take rounds with the attending doctor.” Veracity said  
“Sounds legit.” The guard commented  
“We’ll just be on our way now.” I said, smiling sweetly  
“The doctor’s with Mr. Patterson, I’ll take you to her.” The guard told us. We thanked him and he led us to one of the rooms.   
“Doctor! The students are here.” The guard told the doctor  
“We’re not scheduled to have med students today.” The doctor said, I didn’t like her already. Her phone buzzed and she looked at it. “Oh I guess we are. Fine! Let’s see what you’ve learned so far.” She gave me the clipboard. “And yes you’re being graded on this.” I studied the clipboard. I couldn’t read any of it, the handwriting was that bad. Spyder grabbed the clipboard and chucked it away.   
“Charts don’t heal people. I do. Now tell me about the day you got sick.” Spyder said  
“Uh well it was a pretty normal day. I went to work came home, had some dinner.” The patient explained  
“Ah! Dinner you say.” Spyder said. The dork was enjoying this way too much. It was adorable.   
“I don’t see the relevance in this line of questioning.” The doctor said  
“I think I know where he’s going with this. Let him talk.” I said  
“I made some disco dogs double noodle soup.” The patient continued  
“Didn’t that place go out like years ago.” I wondered  
“Exactly! Tell me, was the can bulging?” Spyder asked  
“Uh…”   
“Was IT BULGING?!” Spyder yelled/asked  
“Yes… it was bulging, with flavour.” The patient answered  
“Botulism. The can was so old that there was more bacteria than soup. I know this because I’ve done this several times.” Spyder muttered  
“Wait what?” The doctor asked, looking shocked  
“He needs an IV drip of botulism antitoxin.” Spyder finished  
“And a pro-catalytic enzyme.” Veracity added  
“That’s not standard treatment.” The doctor said  
“Clearly you’re not up to date on the latest treatment” I added. The nurse stuttered a lot.   
“Please don’t embarrass yourself further. Just… get it!” Spyder told her. We all applauded Spyder and I gave him a quick sidehug. The nurse gave us the pro-catalytic enzyme as well as the IV and left. I hooked the patient up to the IV and Ryan pocketed the enzyme and we headed back to the robot. I trailed behind  
“Good job.” I told Spyder. “You really helped us keep our cover.”   
“Yea well… smart Spyder came out once and that’s all you’re gonna see of him for this year.” Spyder told men  
“I think that ‘smart Spyder’ is just as great. You shouldn’t have to play dumb. No one would judge you if you did… Look I’m not good at these speeches or shit like this so I really don’t know what to say. I guess what I’m trying to say is… I mean I just… Wow this is harder than I thought.” I told him  
“Yea… I understood that. We should probably catch up to the others.” Spyder told me. I nodded and we both caught up with the others  
We got to the robot and ran inside.   
“Mark? Harris?” I called out  
“We’ve got the cure.” Ryan yelled  
“Ms Walker.” Veracity noticed  
“Hi guys, Mark wanted me to com to help you with your plan. Oh! And I also restocked that mini fridge with healthy snacks and threw out the snacks you guys like.” Grace said  
“Did you get to the blue mini fridge?” I asked  
“I tried but there was some sort of shield around that area.” Grace said. I silently mouthed a yes.  
“What plan?” Ryan asked. Just then Mark chimed in through Ryan’s Mech Link  
“Ryan. I know you’re gonna be peeved when you learn what I did, but… I was right! And there’s more…”   
“Not for you there isn’t” Morris said through the Mech Link  
“Get the robot… We have to go! We HAVE TO GO!” Ryan yelled and we all got to our respective places and Ryan locked into the robot.   
“i’m tracking the area and closing in. I sent the coordinates to your phone.” I told Ryan.  
“I can’t believe Mark did this.” Ryan said  
“Yea, I can.” I muttered. “I’m gonna fly ahead.” I said a little louder strapping on the flight synthesizer thingy and jumping out the robot. I flew around the area and saw Mark’s green car. I swooped down and saw him in chains in the car and made the split second decision to free him. I landed softly.   
“Liz! You need to get out of here.” Mark whisper-yelled.  
“I’m just untying your chains, what could go wrong?” I asked, foolishly. That’s when someone grabbed both my arms, twisted them behind my back and wrapped me in chains in mere seconds.   
“That could go wrong.” Mark told me. Harris was standing behind me and shoved me into the passenger seat. My Mech Link was voice activated thank god.   
“Guys! So I found Mark, went to rescue him from his car and was caught and captured and now the car is flying at the mountain. Find Harris and cure him, and ignore us.” I said into my Mech Link.   
“NO! Don’t ignore us. I need to live.” Mark yelled.   
“dude, the link’s off.”   
“oh. We’re gonna die.” Mark yelled  
“My last words: duck.” I said  
“No… I love you Spyder, Mark you’re awesome. Just duck?” Mark asked  
“Duck.” I confirmed and winced and closed my eyes. I opened one eye slightly as I had not been crushed. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Mech X4.   
“Duck!” I said and thanked whatever deity was up there  
“You know you can stop saying that now, right?” Mark told me.   
“Yup but Ryan may kill us so ‘duck’” I said. Mark nodded. We untied ourselves finally after about a couple minutes with the robot’s help. I sprinted out of the car and brought myself into the elevator closing the door in Mark’s face. I whooshed up and everyone was staring at me.   
“So I made a dumb decision and got myself caught and it’s my fault we lost Harris. Say something! Please don’t be mad.” I apologized  
“It’s not your fault. You made a dumb decision to save Mark but this never would have happened if Mark didn’t release Harris.” Veracity explained  
“Okay! I’m not gonna die. I’m just gonna sit.” I said and sat down on the couch. Mark came up  
“Thanks for closing the door on my face” he told me. I smiled and glared. “Anyway. I found out that Traeger is working with harper to create something called the red bloom.”  
“Mark we lost Harris because of you.” Ryan said  
“They’re headed to one of Harper’s greenhouses in Brazil.” Mark continued as if he hadn’t heard Ryan.   
“Mark! You said you wouldn’t let Harris get away. And then you helped him do it! I can’t believe you lied. Right to my face! I can’t believe you put Liz in danger for this.” Ryan yelled at Mark and they continued arguing  
“This is gonna take awhile.” I muttered  
“yup!” Veracity agreed. I sighed popped my earbuds in and leaned my head on Spyder’s shoulder and he put his arm around me. Veracity looked at us then looked away and I remembered about her breakup with Lily. I slapped Spyder’s hand off my shoulder and got up.   
“Mark’s sorry.” Spyder interjected. “Why don’t we leave it at that.” Veracity and I nodded intently  
“Don’t put words in my mouth, I’m not sorry. I used Harris and I’d do it again.” Mark said, angrily and began rearguing with Ryan  
“Guys! Just SHUT IT!” I yelled  
“You know what you don’t have to deal with it anymore! I won’t work with someone I can’t trust. You’re off the team.” Ryan told Mark.   
“Guys, come on. Yes Mark made a mistake but we all make mistakes. And don’t you think this is a little harsh” I tried pacifying  
“His plan did almost killed you.” Veracity pointed out  
“Good point, then again most of my plans are suicidal so…” I trailed off and just sat down. Mark grabbed his Mech Link, took it off and placed it on the table in front of us. “Mark.” I started again  
“Don’t” He said and left. I huffed and sank lower in my seat, staring at the Mech Link.


	20. Episode 18

“Ready?” Veracity asked me. I nodded. “5,6,7,8” She called and helpless played. I always ended up tripping over my own feet ad I did, again.   
“You have to get this.” Veracity told me  
“I know, I know! It’s hard dancing in heels.” I told her  
“You know what it’s fine, we should probably look at more data, anyway.” Veracity told me and I nodded. Spyder was eating ice cream in the control room  
“Where’d you get ice cream?” I asked  
“While you guys were singing and dancing I went out and bought ice cream.” I rolled my eyes and sat down and started reading a book.   
“Where are they?” Ryan asked us  
“According to the data I pulled off this bad boy, Harper was building greenhouses all over the world.” Veracity told Ryan  
“Also he was thinking about proposing to your mom.” I added and wrinkled my nose  
“Eww.” Ryan said. “Why greenhouses?”   
“After his apocalyptic thing, he was gonna need a steady supply of food.” I told Rya  
“This one, is in Brazil.” Veracity said, pulling up an image on her computer.   
“That makes sense, they could use the greenhouse to make the red bloom.” Ryan said  
“Exactly!” I told Ryan  
“Plot a course.” He told us.  
“Don’t you think leaving Mark behind is a bad idea?” Spyder asked Ryan   
“You not having a napkin for your ice cream is a bad idea, leaving Mark behind is a great idea. He lied to us.” Ryan told Spyder  
“We’re supposed to be a team. Come on Liz, V, back me up.” Spyder asked us  
“Yea… I’m kinda on team Ryan for this one” Veracity told Spyder  
“Me too. Mark lied to us, lost Harris and here’s a napkin.” I told Spyder and threw him a napkin.   
“I have total faith in the three of you.” Ryan said, Spyder’s ice cream fell on his computer and I facepalmed  
“I have total faith in two of you.” Ryan said to me and Veracity  
“I still think we need Mark.” Spyder said  
“Not this Mark. He’s back to being the arrogant jerk he was before we found Mech X4” Ryan said and looked lost in thought, we let him have his flashback for a couple minutes  
“Hey! Snap out of it!” I told Ryan and clapped my hands.  
“Right sorry. Liz, Spyder why don’t you two go into the jet and Veracity and I will stay here.” Ryan said  
“Really, Eliza and Spyder, alone, cramped space.” Veracity told Ryan. I groaned  
“Veracity!” She smiled at me.   
“Spyder can go up to the jet himself. Plus Liz can fight better than most of us.” Ryan said. 

*timeskip*

We landed and Spyder came through the elevator.   
“So the jet gets FM Radio, does anyone know what that means.” Spyder asked. We gathered around Veracity’s screen.  
“Veracity what are we looking at?” Ryan asked  
“Let’s see growing pods, refrigeration area, ah! Here we go! Morris, Traeger, Harper, Grey and Harris.” She told us  
“So four and a half baddies.” I summed up  
“Four and a half? Harris is small as fuck.” I told them  
“What’s that?” Spyder asked us  
“The red bloom, these greenhouses could make a ton of them.” Ryan told Spyder  
“What do you say we bring the robot in, do a little cha-cha-cha on the greenhouses.” Spyder said  
“First, we cure Harris, then we can destroy the greenhouses.” I said  
“You got the new antidote?” Ryan asked Veracity  
“We upgraded it with the pro-catalytic enzyme but we can’t be sure it works without testing it.” Veracity told Ryan and dropped six needles into his hands  
“We don’t have time. Harris is gonna have to be the test.” Ryan decided and started running towards the elevator.  
“Wait for us.” Spyder called. I grabbed the gravity pucks and we raced into the elevator  
“Let’s get our little hair-bear back.” Veracity said  
“You know he really doesn’t like it when you make fun of his size.” Spyder said  
“I know.” Veracity said simply and the elevator whooshed down.   
We were hiding behind a crate of fruit.   
“So that’s when I saw the ad for a janitor with fighting skills.” Morris said  
“I’m 14, why are you telling me your old man problems?” Harris asked and they walked away. Ryan motioned for Veracity, Spyder and I to go around and distract while he took care of Harris.   
“What do you want us to-” I covered Spyder’s mouth with my hand, silencing him. Ryan repeated the motion and we crept and got outside. We made it to the entrance and stood there.   
“Hey! Henchman number 2.” Spyder yelled and I smirked.   
“Yea Vin-Doofus, we’re talking to you!” I yelled  
“Come here.” He growled and we all started running. I would use my superspeed but… I didn’t wanna leave Spyder and Veracity behind, plus it was more fun this way.   
“Guys, we can’t run forever.” Veracity said  
“Nope! We can fight though.” I said and we all ducked behind a corner. “Okay, he’s most likely lost sight of us.”   
“I have rope.” Spyder informed us  
“Why… nevermind. Uh we can trip him as he runs by us and tie him up.” Veracity said  
“aNd here he comes.” I yelped and I stuck out my boot. He tripped and banged his head on the ground, knocking himself out. “That works too.” I said. Veracity and Spyder tied him up. We hauled him over and tied him to a crate/wood thingy.  
“You guys took out Morris?” Ryan asked as he entered the room we were in  
“Who can’t?” Spyder scoffed  
“Hey, I’m right here.” He complained  
“We know.” Veracity said  
“Don’t remind us.” I added  
“Harris?” Spyder asked  
“The cure didn’t work.” Ryan admitted  
“Oops. Our bad. Anyway, they’ve filled this container with red bloom and here comes more. We should probably get to the robot.” I said. We ran outside and went into the robot and sat down at our respective stations. Ryan was about to step on the crate when Harris jumped on it. Ryan put his foot down  
“It’s Harris, I can’t. I just can’t.” Ryan said. Harris started glowing and turned into a shark monster thingy.  
“Okay… no more short jokes.” Veracity said, sounding slightly terrified.   
“yup! We need the x weapon.” I decided  
“But dial it down, we don’t wanna hurt him.” Ryan added. Veracity ran off to the repair place.   
“Where’d he go?” Ryan asked. “V, can you track him?”   
“Yea, but I can’t be in two places at once.” Veracity muttered  
“I can track.” I volunteered. I ran to Veracity’s computer and started typing away. Let’s see here.   
He’s coming towards us from the side.” I figured out  
“Which side?” Ryan asked  
“I don’t know! I have trouble telling my left from my right and orientation in general.” I shot back. “uhhh that side.” I said pointing, and that was when Harris attacked. We were thrown back in our chairs, I heard a scream followed by a thud. “Veracity.” I murmured. I shot up and out of my seat. I ran and brought her back to the control deck. I placed her in her chair. There was a cut on her head. Monster Harris took out the X-weapon. I looked down at my chest and saw red blossom near my stomach. I lifted up my shirt and saw a stab wound right below my bra.   
“He just took out the X weapon.” Ryan exclaimed  
“Thats the only weapon we have that can take down a monster of red ooze.” Spyder explained  
“Yea! No shit!” I yelled, drawing their attention.   
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked me  
“yup! Perfectly fine, this happens all the time.” I said, sarcasm lacing my tone  
“really.” Spyder asked  
“NO!” I yelled and sat down, I was losing consciousness because of the wound and blood loss and stuff.  
“Shields!” Ryan yelled  
“Switching to shields.” Veracity said, but not quick enough. Monster Harris hit us and we went flying. I lost consciousness after that.  
I woke up in the med-bay, a bandage around my chest. I saw a note.   
‘Hey, Liz, dont get mad but ur in no condition to fight. If you do wake up, note that this note was written at 3:24 pm.’ I checked the time, only 3:26. I could catch up to them. I ran out of the robot and opened my phone. I tracked Ryan’s phone and ran to catch up.  
“hi guys!” I said, startling them  
“You should be in the robot.” Ryan said  
“But I’m not. I’m here, you’re stuck with me.” I said, grinning and slung my arms around Veracity and another around Spyder.   
“Man, it’s a long walk from the ferry, I miss Mark’s car.” Spyder said  
“No, not this again” Ryan argued. I noticed a bunch of objects falling from the sky. I tugged on Spyder’s sleeve, to get his attention  
“What’s that?” Veracity and I asked at the same time.  
“It’s the red bloom. Spyder, Liz, bounce belt now.” Ryan told us. We activated them, creating a protective sphere around us. When the stuff finally finished falling, we deactivated them. People started approaching us slowly.


	21. Episode 19

“This is bad. Very bad!” Ryan told us  
“Ya think.” I muttered  
“We need to do something.” Spyder said  
“Yea no duh.” Veracity retorted  
“get them.” Dane yelled   
“Come on.” Ryan yelled and we all ran into a warehouse thing and closed the doors. Veracity, Spyder and I immediately went on our phones and tried phoning our parents. Veracity was phoning her dads, Spyder was phoning his mom and I was trying to get through to Grace.   
“I can’t get through to Grace.” I told Ryan as he approached us  
“I can’t reach either of my dads.” Veracity said, worriedly.   
“I don’t even have a signal.” Spyder complained  
“Did you pay your bill?” I asked  
“No…” Spyder muttered  
“Use mine.” I told him and gave him my phone. Ryan’s phone rang  
“Oh now she calls.” I muttered  
“Mom! Are you okay!” Ryan asked. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we get the robot and get you out of there.” Ryan said  
“Do these things still have invisibility.” Spyder asked, referring to his Mech Link  
“Only yours, I think. No one else wanted the update.” I said. We all ducked and got close together as the doors burst open. We all ran through the back exit and made it to the ferry. We stopped by the military base gathered in front of the ferry  
“He’s infected all of bay city.” Ryan said  
“Oh, is pointing out the obvious another one of your powers.” Veracity asked Ryan. “Sorry, I snark when I’m scared.” Veracity admitted  
“They’ve got those new acid tipped missiles. That’s awesome-i mean terrible. That’s bad, that’s really bad.” Spyder amended. We ran and went into the robot.   
“Dead! Just like my cell phone! I’m seeing a pattern here and I do not like it.” Spyder said  
“My station’s completely down.” I said  
“Repairs are only half done.” Veracity said, looking frazzled  
“Mark and your mom are here.” I pointed out  
“The car can survive a missile strike, right?” Spyder asked  
“No!” Ryan said  
“Then we have a problem. I’m gonna go out there and block the missiles.” I told them. I strapped on the flight synthesizer and I jumped out of the robot. I blasted 2 missiles and Ryan took care of one, almost killing me in the process. I kept blasting and dodging the missiles until Mark and Grace got into the robot safely, then I flew in. I saw Ryan and Mark being awkward as normal.   
“More missiles.” I yelped.  
“We gotta get out of here.” Ryan said. “This may be a bumpy ride.”   
“Really, I had no idea.” I muttered. As soon as all the missiles were about to hit, Ryan jumped and the robot moved. We turned and looked back  
“The ferry.” I cleared my throat and blinked a couple tears out of my eyes. “It’s gone.” I concentrated on a light and tried not to cry. “They-uhh they’re getting ready for another attack.” I said and swallowed. My throat felt like closed up.   
“The whole city’s after us. What do we do? Where do we go?” Mark said  
“The one place where we’ll be safe” Ryan said and we left. Throughout the ride we were constantly on guard, weapons and shields ready. Ryan finally stopped the robot and we exited. Veracity actually decided to stay in the robot. Spyder was trying to make conversation with Mark who just walked off. I hung back a little, I was still somewhat upset about the ferry thing and didn’t wanna talk at all!  
“Okay! Tech stays in the well away from the Thirty.” Ryan said and I dropped my phone, headsets, and iPad into the well bucket. A couple people approached us  
“So… wanna meet our mother?” Ryan asked me and I cracked a smile and nodded. We looked somewhat similar  
“You must be Elizabeth.” Violet said warmly  
“Hi… you’re Violet, I mean mom, I mean… I’ll figure it out.” I stammered and she hugged me. We walked all the way to the village talking about interests and whatnot. Violet was more soft-spoken than me but we both liked, reading, music and singing. It was nice. I felt warm and fuzzy inside.   
When we got to the farm, I started working with a person around my age maybe a year older with crops and watering them and stuff. Spyder hugged me from behind.  
“hi.” I said to him  
“Hey! I’m gonna go explore the farm, you do whatever you’re doing with him.” Spyder said  
“Oh that reminds me, Spyder meet Jordan, Jordan meet Spyder.” I said  
“It’s she and her unless I tell you otherwise, not him.” Jordan said and stuck her hand out. Spyder shook it  
“Sorry.” Spyder apologized. “You’re good right.”   
“I’m fine here, go explore, do whatever!” I encouraged and waved goodbye  
“So… dating or really friendly?” Jordan asked  
“Dating.” I told her  
“ah… cool. I wanna date but no one here is my age apart from like you guys and no offence, but none of you are my type.” Jordan explained, waving a hand around  
“Hmm… what about blonde, smart, sarcastic and bi?” I asked. “You’re cured right.”   
“I’m cured and we’re done now. That was my last chore… assuming this mystery person is here with you, I’d like to meet her.” Jordan told me  
“Alright, follow me.” I said. I grabbed my tech from the well and showed her the robot. We went up to the control deck and stepped out.   
“Whoa.” Jordan breathed in awe  
“Hey Liz, hey… uhh.”   
“Veracity this is Jordan, Jordan this is Veracity.” I introduced. I note Veracity’s hair was frazzled  
“I uhhh” Veracity cleared her throat. “Nice to meet you Jordan.”   
“Just so you know, my preferred pronouns are she and her unless I explicitly tell you otherwise.” Jordan stated, then I got a call from Spyder on my Mech Link. I put the call on speaker and made sure we could all hear it  
“Liz, I snuck a couple kids off the farm to go to hocus pocus pizza so they could have some fun for once in their lives.” Spyder said  
“Aww… that’s sweet.” Veracity commented  
“But the city just got bloomed and now there’s a guy in a bunny suit after us.” Spyder finished  
“Aww… that’s stupid.” I commented  
“Did he just say bunny suit?” Jordan asked  
“Spyder hang on. I’ll get there as fast as I can.” I turned off my Mech Link, “Can you two get Mark and Ryan for backup.” I asked   
“Won’t your super speed cause your chest to hurt like hell with the x weapon still broken?” Veracity asked  
“Yup!” I said and super sped, speeded, spode? (look it’s like 11 at night) My way there. There were people surrounding the entrance. I scaled the side of the building, and by scaled I mean used a ladder, and blasted a hole through the roof, and landed safely on the ground.   
“Would you call me cliche if I made a joke about dropping in?” I asked Spyder and he rolled his eyes. Just then the doors burst open  
“Get them!” A guy in a bunny suit yelled. Two came after me and I knocked them both out. I kept fighting person after person. Spyder fell, causing me to get momentarily distracted and allowing my opponent to shove me to the floor, also punching the wound in my chest. Blood started up again in the wound, staining my shirt. I hissed in pain and Ryan and Mark entered  
“Dude! I said I got this!” Ryan yelled  
“I’m just trying to help my friends!” Mark told Ryan  
“They’re my friends!” Ryan argued  
“ladies, ladies, you’re both beautiful, how bout some oh I don’t know HELP!” I yelled. The bunny held up two red blooms. I flinched away and Spyder grabbed my hand. Then Mark kicked the bunny in the back  
“That’s for giving me nightmares afTER MY FIFTH BIRTHDAY PARTY.” Mark said and helped Spyder and I up. I started fighting again, a little slower but it was working.   
“You picked up skills.” Mark told Spyder  
“Don’t tell my guidance counsellor, he’ll expect me to apply myself.” Spyder said and I snickered as I punched someone unconscious.  
“MARK, SPYDER LIZ DUCK!” Ryan yelled. My brain didn’t register those words, and Mark pulled me down. Electricity fizzed throughout the room and knocked everyone unconscious.  
“We make a pretty good team.” I muttered, stepping over the bodies  
“We’re not a team.” Mark said  
“Nope.” Ryan agreed  
“Huh… at least you two agree on that.” I muttered  
“All right, that’s it! How dumb are you two?! Us and those kids would’ve been torn apart if it weren’t for both of you!” Spyder ranted  
“dude!” Ryan interrupted. I sat down and let drama ensue.  
“No! Don’t ‘dude’ me! Mark made a hard choice to get answers. You have to make a hard choice about Harris. I made a tough choice to protect those kids.” Spyder continued  
“To be fair, you put them in danger, originally so…” I trailed off as her glared at me  
“Not the point! You’re both right and you’re both wrong! The world needs you on the same team so figure it out!” Spyder said and left to grab pizza  
“Spyder called you two dumb… and he’s not wrong.” I said and left to grab the kids.   
“Hey guys, time to go.” I said  
“That was awesome.” The younger boy said. I nodded, grabbed their hands and brought them to the front.   
“Let’s go, guys.” I said and we left.  
“Can we do this again?” The girl asked, after we arrived  
“Next apocalypse.” Spyder said  
“Next time we visit because there will be no other apocalypse.” I scolded (although 2020 says otherwise)  
“Liz, Spyder, you guys are okay. I owe that farmer 5 bucks.” Veracity muttered that last part and gave us both hugs.   
“You and me both.” Jordan muttered, approaching us  
“Robot?” Ryan asked  
“Fully repaired and I think I may have found something to help us win the fight.” Veracity responded and held up a watch  
“What is it.” I asked  
“This is why I needed to look inside the control pad. This is the key to defeating Traeger. This is how we take back the world.” Veracity said, confidently.  
Veracity put the armband on Ryan  
“Well… it’s no little pink tiger suit.” I said, snickering  
“Does everyone know about that.” Ryan asked  
“I blast texted the entire school with the image.” I said grinning  
“It’ll convert the technopathic energy your body absorbs into energy your body can store for later. So it’ll turn you into a giant battery.” Veracity explained  
“And cure everybody here.” I added  
“and what if it doesn’t.” Grace fretted  
“He’ll be burnt to a crisp.” I said, automatically. I noticed the looks on everyone’s faces and it was at that point I knew I fucked up “is something I maybe should not have said to his mother.”  
“Are you sure about this, Ryan?” Mark asked  
“Traeger’s about to take over the world, this is our only chance.” Ryan assured. Everybody in the thirty gathered around Ryan and we backed up and watched literal sparks fly. Ryan started floating and some weird music started playing  
“Okay does no one else hear the background music.” I wondered. The rest of the team looked at me weirdly and I just shook my head. We all ran over to Ryan as soon as he landed. Veracity touched Ryan’s like cheek because there were bolts of electricity all over him  
“Ah jeez, you’re hot.” Veracity muttered and shook her hand  
“You… you really think this is the right moment for you to flirt for the first time in your life.” Spyder muttered and I smacked him. “ow!”   
“I meant his body temp, slapstick.” Veracity retorted. “Well the techno booster’s working.”  
“I can reach out all over the world. Something’s happening in London, Grey’s there in her monster form.” Ryan told us  
“But that’s overseas, we can’t go overseas.” I said  
“Wait for it.” Ryan warned and then the jet landed  
“How powerful are you?” Spyder wondered  
“let’s go find out.” Ryan said


	22. Episode 20

I was standing to the side with Veracity and Spyder as Ryan and Mark were talking to Grace

"be careful all of you." Grace warned us. We all nodded and whooshed up to the control deck in the robot and we took off. Ryan was shooting to the sky and I clutched my stomach

"Slow down! Please." I said, holding my mouth, trying not to throw up

"Sorry, still getting used to this power up." Ryan told us

"Guys! Look London!" Spyder said

"ooooh... can we locate tom holland" I wondered absentmindedly

"Or Emma Watson." Spyder added

"Or can we go to platform 9 3/4 I really wanna go buy a wand and get butterbeer" I pleaded

"You can nerd out later Liz and you can get rejected by wizards after we take out Grey, Spyder." Veracity said, clearly annoyed with us. Grey in her monster form then came into view, throwing red bloom everywhere. Ryan knocked over the monster

"The red bloom is in the claws." I told Ryan

"If we can take out the claws then we can still hopefully help parts of London." Veracity said.

"Spyder, plasma axe!" Ryan yelled. He nodded. Ryan flung the axe, cutting off one of Grey's claws. The axe returned like a boomerang, cutting off the other claw and then Ryan caught it.

"Holy shit." I said in shock

"Shit! Grey's making a run for it." Veracity alerted us

"Watch this." Ryan said. He punched Grey and turned her monster into ooze.

"You can't let any of us have the glory, can you." I muttered and sat back. I high-fived Veracity and we both air high-fived Spyder.

"i'd high-five but you know." Mark said. The ooze started moving

"guys... Grey's life force was essentially connected to the monster. The ooze is migrating underground, probably back to Traeger but because we killed the monster, we may have killed Grey." I said rapidly. "I'm gonna go down there." I said and left the robot. I landed on the ground and ran to Grey. I put my fingers against her neck and felt a really weak pulse. I also noticed like damaged skin, it was a pink-ish colour, in the form of circles on her neck.

"Guys... she's almost like in a catatonic state, a coma." I said.

"Bring her into the robot." Veracity said

I placed Grey down on the med-bay bed and Veracity scanned for vitals

"I'm not sure what those things on her neck are but her vitals seem to be okay. There's no brain activity though. It's like a catatonic state." Veracity said, reiterating what I said earlier. I knocked on her head and there was a hollow sound.

"Nobody's home." I said

"Oh! Well in that case, I call dibs on her knifey-things." Spyder said. We all muttered our varying disagreement and protests against that.

"okay Spyder, put the weapon down." I said, and he stabbed at me, and I moved out of the way. "Oh! Did you really wanna do that, sweetheart." I said, mockingly and grabbed my knives.

"I'm starting to regret that. Sorry Liz." I muttered something under my breath and sheathed my knives, "Guys come on, I'm the weapons guy. I think I can handle AH" Spyder let out a shriek of pain as he dropped the knife on his foot.

"I call that karma." Veracity said, grinning

"Hey, she's got another one, do you want a matching pair?" I asked innocently. Spyder glared at me. "Veracity, can you handle it here with Ryan, I'll go with Mark and fix Spyder." I said. I grabbed some medical supplies and Mark helped Spyder limp out of the room. Spyder sat down on the couch.

"I'm gonna pull out the sword and it's gonna hurt. Hold on to this pillow." I told Spyder and handed him a fluffy blue and pink pillow. I gently pulled the sword out and Spyder yelped. I quickly took off his shoe, Mark took off his sock and I started cleaning the wound with a paper towel and water. Mark tossed me some gauze and I wrapped it around the wound.

"Bam! You're good to go." I said. Mark grabbed the medical equipment and took it back.

"Harris is in Shang-hai!" Ryan said through the mech Links and we all ran back to the control deck. Veracity grabbed Mark Spyder and I and took us to her lab. She was showing us the darts she created. Ryan walked in

"Shouldn't you oh I dont know, be on the control pad making sure we dont die?" I asked sarcastically

"I'm powerful enough to fly this thing from anywhere." Ryan said

"So Veracity figured out how to stop the monster and save Harris." I said.

"Harris is, essentially, the monster's heart. So if we can get in there and rescue him, no more heart, no more monster. We can get Harris back." Veracity then grabbed one of the tranquilizer darts, "This is the most powerful tranquilizer that I can make, just one dose will knock him out for a few minutes." Veracity said

"Hopefully without any permanent damage." I muttered.

"Hopefully doesn't sound promising" Mark said

"So one of us would have to go inside the monster. It sounds crazy, and I wanna go." Spyder declared

"Fuck no! I'm not letting you go on some suicide mission, I'm the least uhh you know prone to death... so I'll go." I decided

"No... I'll go. I was the one who let Harris go. It's up to me to get him out." Mark said, reaching for a dart. I grabbed the darts.

"I'm going with you and that's that on that." I said. "I've been inside monsters before, I can help guide you." I said.

"Fine." Mark said

"I'm gonna go get my gear." I said and walked out of the room.

"Liza, you realize this could be suicide, right?" Veracity told me

"I know." I said simply and put on my bounce belt.

"You could die," Veracity said

"I know." I said simply

"Please don't die." Spyder told me

"No promises." I muttered. I grabbed a couple darts from Veracity. I laced up the combat boots with gravity pucks in them and sat down, waiting. Veracity then checked her phone.

"I'm gonna go do stuff..." Veracity fibbed and left, leaving me and Spyder alone.

"Do I get a kiss for good luck? I mean it's kind of a tradition, right?" I told Spyder, grinning

"You're not actually gonna die, right?" Spyder asked me

"I can't guarantee anything, but most likely no." I told Spyder, little did I know how wrong that was. "Tell you what, I promise you that I won't die and you'll try harder in school." I said and held up my pinky.   
"I can't pinky promise, that's a girl thing." Spyder told me and I glared at him. "Fine." He muttered. He shook my pinky and gave me a short sweet kiss. Mark came in.

"Let's go." I said and stood up. Spyder wanted to talk to Mark and I just climbed into the escape pod. Mark came in shortly after. It was somewhat roomy. We both buckled in. Harper's voice said something over the loudspeaker and I took a couple deep breaths. Ryan flung the escape pod and it attached to the monster.

"Are you guys good?" Ryan asked

"Hahaha no." I said, grabbed my battle axe and started swinging it, cutting through the weird insides of the monster, with Mark close behind me.

"This way." I said, motioning to my left. We continued to hack through the disgusting insides and finally found Harris.   
"Coming here was a mistake." Harris said and tied up Mark while I stayed hidden. Mark started talking to Harris and he snapped out of it.

"Harris, I need you to resist as much as possible I think I figured out a way to help you without killing you." I told him. I started working at the ooze tendrils as Mark continued talking. I freed Harris, pushed him out of the way and allowed the ooze tendrils to connect to me, instead. I harnessed control of the monster and untied Mark.

"Oh my god! Liz! What did you do?" Mark panicked

"I figured the ooze tendrils act as a virus, without a human host, they can't survive, so I became the host and freed Harris." I explained. "Look, I probably don't have that much time before the monster takes over so listen to me. Use all five tranquilizer darts. I'm resistant." I said and gasped as I felt the monster take over briefly. I quickly fought back at it.

"What no! I'm not letting you die for me." Harris told me

"Well it's either that or have me destroy the world and I really don't wanna destroy the world. Do it Mark or so help me I will murder you grab the darts and do it myself." I threatened

"Do you know what three of these will do. What if we can't get you back?" Mark yelled

"Look, I'm quickly losing control of my own will. I couldn't live with myself if I turned into a monster. Consider it a favour to me, and if you don't that means you hate me." I told Mark. I quickly tossed Harris the two darts I had. "if three don't work try more." I said. I closed my eyes and felt the darts pierce through my skin and I lost consciousness.

I regained my bearings. I could hear everything and feel everything but I couldn't open my eyes. I felt someone pushing on my chest, trying CPR. I then heard a monitor flatline. My monitor. I could still feel.

"Mark! You promised! You promised she'd be okay!" I heard Spyder yell I felt someone hold my hand. I channeled as much energy as I could into that one hand and squeezed it.

"Guys, I felt something. I think Lizzy squeezed my hand." I heard Spyder say, choppily, as though he had been crying.

"Nonononono, that's impossible." Veracity said. I felt Spyder's hand get off mine and I think Veracity placed her hands in both of mine "Eliza, can you hear us, if you can, squeeze your hand, either one." I channeled as much energy as I could and squeezed one of my hands. "She's alive. Uhhh okay, so according to this, she can survive about 5 minutes without a heartbeat, one more minute than a regular human.

"Uhh she has 3 minutes left. An electric pulse might shock her heart into working again. Ryan!" Harris said

"I don't know if it'll work!" Ryan protested

"It's better than LOSING HER!" Mark yelled. I felt Ryan place his hands over my heart and I felt a shock go through me. I bolted upright. I glared at Mark

"I can't believe you killed me!" I said, without thinking. Everybody laughed. "Wait! Harris is okay! It worked! I'm a genius!"

"You are a dumbass." Spyder said. He hugged me and put his head one mine.

"I still can't believe you killed me!" I said to Mark laughing. Ryan fist-bumped me. Harris high-fived me and Veracity hugged me. "I'm tired." I said and yawned. I lay back down and closed my eyes. I opened one eye to see everyone hovering over me. "Oh my fucking god, I'm fucking fine. You assholes can leave now." Everyone left but before Spyder left I grabbed his hand. "Stay." I murmured and drifted off to sleep

When I woke up I saw Spyder sitting next to me, watching a movie on his phone.

"Hi." I muttered groggily

"It's been a 45 minute nap in case you wanna know." Spyder told me

"Cool, uhh can you grab me something to change into, I'm covered in ooze. If you go into the middle pocket into my backpack, there's a spare outfit in there." I told him. He nodded, plugged his phone in and left. He returned shortly after with a camp half blood t-shirt, a camp Jupiter sweater and some light blue ripped jeans. "can you go for like 5 minutes." I told Spyder, so I could get some privacy.

"I'll uhh wait outside." Spyder muttered. I quickly changed and walked outside.

"Alright let's go." I said and started speed-walking

"Slower! You were a corpse just under an hour ago, don't you think you should oh I dunno rest for a little." Spyder told me

"Nope!" I said. Spyder grabbed my hand.

"The others are on the X-deck." Spyder said and we walked there.

"Clear the way! This girl was a corpse an hour ago. Do you still need anything?" Spyder asked me

"I'm fine." I said with a laugh.

"You're not a zombie are you?" Spyder whispered, conspiratorially to me

"No." I said laughing. "You're back to classic Harris right? Nothing wrong." I asked Harris

"I'm good although evil me made some questionable wardrobe choices." Harris said

"Alright! The fist is reattached and we're on our way home." Ryan said, walking in.

"And I'm tracking the ooze, it's going back to Traeger so hopefully we'll know where he is." Veracity said

"Feels good to win again." Ryan said

"Okay! Not to rain on your parade or anything, but we still have to take down Harper and figure out how to cure people." I said

"When I was possessed I could hear Traeger's voice in my head." Harris said

"So take down Traeger, no more voice." I summed up

"Exactly." Veracity said. "Also you have 50% of your powerup left so hopefully that's enough to defeat big red."

"Let's find Traeger and defeat him once and for all." Ryan said


	23. Episode 21

I was sitting at my station on the robot, we were headed to Traeger's last known location.

"We're coming up on Traeger's last known location." I said. "Get ready."

"We're too late, he's gone." Harris said

"Egypt just got infected by the bloom." Veracity said. I pulled up images on my computer feed

"So did Florida!" I muttered

"How can he hit two places that are so far apart at the same time?" Ryan asked

"Buenos Aires got infected too." Mark said

"Space! There's only one place he could infect all those places from at once, space!" Veracity said

"Then that's where we have to go." Ryan said. I pulled up a map of the world and started mapping the different places that have been infected.

"So he has control of half the world." I said

"The robot doesn't have a space mode does it?" Veracity asked

"Believe me if it did, I would've been to space and the moon. Mooning something, on the moon." Spyder said

"I'm gonna cut you off there." I told Spyder

"Maybe it could. I mean the robot is airtight and it has it's own oxygen supply." Ryan theorized

"Like in sub-mode." Harris provided as an example

"And with the power up, we could break through the atmosphere potentially without burning up." Veracity said

"I would love to give Harper a zero g beat up, especially on his own space station." I said and cracked my knuckles

"You and me both." Mark said

"And I would love to see Traeger turned into a puddle of red goo, preferably with me being the one who turns him as revenge for briefly killing my girlfriend." Spyder said

"me too, not the girlfriend or revenge part but the Traeger part." Harris agreed

"Strap in!" Ryan said. I buckled into my chair and so did Harris and Spyder. Veracity pressed a button and sat in her chair.

"Wha? She got a CHAIR! Liz has a chair, Spyder has a chair, Harris has a chair, Mark! Nothing!" Mark yelled at Ryan and I snickered. "I can't go into space without-"

"Mech Xecute!" Ryan yelled, effectively cutting Mark off. We launched and I heard random objects clattering in the labs. Spyder and Harris and Mark looked scared silly. Veracity and I were cheering and throwing our hands in the air like a rollercoaster.

"Holding Holding!" Mark yelled

"Reaching escape velocity." Veracity and I yelled at the same time

"Face feeling weird." Spyder yelled

"Entering orbit in three two one!" Harris yelled. We entered orbit and random things started floating. My glasses floated off my head, and were lost in the robot somewhere. I unbuckled my seatbelt and started floating to grab my glasses. I did a weird swim back to my chair and buckled in.

"Someone create gravity please." I said, laughing.

"Hang on! Adjusting the gyroscopes." Harris said. Random objects clattered to the floor and so did Mark.

"Get. Me. A. Chair." Mark demanded

"Don't be such a baby about it! I can pull up the schematics of the space station, since I helped build it, they're on my phone." I scoffed and started towards the X-deck. I hooked up my phone and we created a hologram of it.

"These are the schematics, the entrance is here and the escape pod is right there, we could probably attach there and the power thingy is there." I said, gesturing to each spot. "The red bloom are in giant containers over here near the power thingy."

"Use your techno ha-hoo fizz-whizz thing to shut it down." Mark said

"Firstly, I love that name, I'm using it. Secondly, if we shut down the station, Traeger and Harper will know we're here. PS, the observation deck is up there, and that's where they'll be, most likely." I said

"Our goal is to take down Traeger." Ryan said

"So how do we do that?" Veracity asked

"uh duh, the X-weapon." Harris said

"You destroyed that and if we used it, both Ryan, me and the robot would blow up" I said simply

"If I connect the arm cannons to the power core, I can create an explosion. Also, Eliza, I found a way to get rid of the physical connection with the robot. Drink this." Veracity said and handed me a cup of a blue-ish liquid. I drank it and felt nothing

"That's it?" I asked

"Yup." Veracity said

"That'll radiate the anti-ooze energy, and dissolve Traeger into red ooze! Smart!" Harris exclaimed

"Was that a compliment?" Veracity asked, smirking

"Hey, we're friends now, right?" Harris said. Veracity mumbled something unintelligible under her breath. It didn't sound great. I heard something that sounded eerily like ducking glassmole.

"Spyder can you break this moment with something stupid, please?" Veracity asked

"I mean we're gonna get out off there before the explosion, right. I mean, I love explosions just uh from the outside not the inside." Spyder said, awkwardly

"Thanks laugh-track." Veracity said

"We just need to get in and out without any body noticing us." Ryan said

"When we built the rocket, I remember Harper told me I'd never be able to go into space in it. So near the exhaust port, I got rid of the cameras as a way to sneak in. Bet you're all glad I was adopted by Harper now." I said

"But how do we dock with it." Mark asked

"Well I have a plan." Ryan said and that's when I started praying.

Ryan connected the arm cannon to the port. There was a thud that sent me lurching forward, and my glasses broke again.

"Yea, remind me to get contacts when we head back to Earth." I muttered. I got out of my seat and we all went to the arm cannon. Ryan crawled through first. He set the cameras on a loop. Then Spyder crawled out. I then crawled out and when exiting the capsule I bumped my head.

"Okay guys, this should be really simple assuming-" I was cut off

"Nobody knows you're here? Spoiler alert. Somebody does." Harper said

"guys, we can escape into space!" Spyder theorized and bolted to one of the hatches.

"No!" We all yelled. I dragged him back to where we were all previously standing.

"I was hoping this would be in 0 g but..." Mark attacked Harper and Harper flipped him.

"My turn." I said. I landed a couple punches before Harper judo-flipped me and knocked me to the ground. I groaned

"You can thank Sensei Jeff for that move." Harper said. Spyder ran over to us. He helped us up. I winced as his hand brushed over my ribcage, I think I bruised it. "And speaking of thank yous" Harper trailed off

"he hasn't triggered an alarm." Veracity and I said simultaneously

"Points to the STEM girls." Harper exclaimed

"Yea well it doesn't exactly take rocket science" I did jazz hands to enunciate my point "to figure that out."

"Guys, come on, it's me Seth! I'm on your side." Harper protested. I scoffed

"You expect us to believe that! YoU fLEw uS inTo a MoUNTaiN!" Mark yelled

"No, I flew you two at a mountain knowing that Ry-guy here would save you. I even put your safety belts on" Harper explained  
"Oh thanks." Mark said, rolling his eyes

"Yea cuz that makes such a difference." I said sarcastically

"Guys, this is classic double agent stuff. What took you so long?" I scoffed and crossed my arms. "I've been all 'yeah, good idea, Traeger' since I learned he wanted to mind control the world. Somebody had to be on the inside to help you guys finish the job." Harper said

"Alright, let's say we believe you... what's your motives?" I asked, suspicious af, as I should be

"Why are you suddenly a good guy?" Ryan asked

"i-uh-see-i I never saw myself as the bad guy." Harper muttered

Veracity gave a bitter laugh, "You were! You totally were."

"You weren't even there!" Harper accused. Veracity's posture immediately changed from 'im slightly relaxed and slightly tense' to 'fight me bitch! Right here, right now!'

"my DNA became the bad guy. I saw this reflection of myself like a funhouse mirror but not fun... at all. And... I-" Harper was cut off from his explanation

"Your heart is a tiny piece of coal." Spyder filled in

"Oh I despise you." Harper muttered. Then in a louder voice, he continued. "But... it was. I... I'd given up on humanity and... and then I saw it in all of you. I saw a world worth saving. And now that you're here, we can save the world together. So... what do you say."

"I say this is bullshit. I say I blast you to tiny-ass pieces, Veracity connects, the cannon, we leave and blow this place up and I never have to hear from you ever again." I responded

"I can't believe im saying this but okay... I believe you, you're on the team. You can use this mech-link to communicate with us" Ryan explained

"Can I have money for team Jerseys?" Spyder asked

"Absolutely not." Harper said. "So what's the game plan?"

"Veracity has a cannon. We attach the cannon to the power core, make a break for it, fly the robot out and detonate it from a distance, killing Traeger." I explained

"Little glitch there. The door to the power core is sealed by six highly encrypted magnetic locks. Even with your power, it would take forever to unlock it." Harper said

"So I blast through it." I said

"That wouldn't work. But guess who could open the locks from the observation deck?" Harper said

"Traeger." Spyder said, purposefully to piss off Harper

"No me! You are officially the dumbest kid in space." Harper insulted

"That's a win." Spyder exclaimed

"Nope!"

"We'll signal you when we're at the door. Harp-execute." Harper said

"ohh no."

"Nope"

"Fuck no!"

"Is that a thing?"

"in space it can be a thing." Ryan amended

"Let's go." Harper said. We went through the door.

"Harper's right, this would've taken me days" Ryan said

"Or... I could just do this." I said. I heated the locks and essentially made them unlock with fire, oooh fun. I stepped through the door. I activated the gravity pucks on Mark's shoes while Veracity coded the cannon.

"Good to go." Veracity said

"Ready!" I told her. Mark grabbed the cannon, flew up and attached it to the core.

"Perfect, now we can get out of here." Ryan said

"Can I signal Harper, I wanna signal Harper." Spyder said. We all muttered our consent and he did.

"Wait where's Harper." Mark asked. Everyone looked at me.

"No! I am not going back for him." I said firmly

"He's your adoptive father." Ryan argued

"Guys, a little help!" Harper said through the Mech Link.   
"Harper!' Ryan yelled. Spyder banged on his Mech Link a couple times

"Nothing! Harper's toast." Spyder said

"Well we tried, let's go." I said

"Liz." Ryan scolded

"I don't wanna listen to my conscience. It always tells me to do the right thing like don't leave your adoptive father behind! Go back for him." I argued

"He could still be alive. This is now a rescue mission." Ryan said. We all protested

"We're going back... for Harper?! The guy who tried to take us out a million times" Spyder asked, incredulously

"Yeah, Kid Detention here has a point!" Veracity agreed

"We should just go back to Mech X4, detonate the core and save the world." I said

"Yea... thanks to Harper we can do that." Ryan argued

"If I recall correctly, I was the one who melted the locks." I argued

"And he didn't sound any alarms. So let's go!" Ryan said. I groaned knowing this would kill me

"Fine!" I muttered

"He's right!" Harris said

"All right!" Spyder agreed

"This is gonna be the death of me." Veracity said

"Looks like we're saving Harper." Mark said. We ran.

Just as Traeger was about to destroy Harper, Harris hit him with an arm cannon. Harris shoved the arm cannon into Spyder's hands and ran up to Traeger, from behind

"Sucker punch from nowhere." Harris yelled. He punched Traeger and Traeger hit the ceiling

"Thanks for letting me borrow these." Harris thanked Veracity

"No problem, we're friends now. Oh man that's weird to say out loud." Veracity muttered

"It's weirder to hear." I said and blasted Traeger with a steady stream of fire.

"I got this." Harris said. I quickly fell back. We were all about to leave. Spyder stayed behind filming.

"Spyder, let's go!" I yelled

"He's gonna want this." He retorted

"Okay, great you have enough footage, now let's go!" I yelled and we both ran

"Let's go!" Harris said and ran to us

"Wait! He just destroyed the device!" Ryan said

"Okay... any ideas?" Veracity asked

"Cry!" Harris suggested

"Any better ideas." I amended

"Just one... and you guys aren't gonna like it." Ryan said and quickly explained the plan.

Mech X4 detached itself from the ship. Traeger soon followed. Traeger started to fight Mech X4 in his monster form. He blew fire and basically destroyed the head of the robot.

"Would ya look at that. That potion thingy must've worked. My head's not gone." I told Veracity

"well it was a 40% chance it would've worked so I was pretty sure it would." She said

"40." Spyder asked

"Yea well if it didn't work, she would've exploded as soon as she drank the cure." Veracity said

EXPLODED!!!! Ima have a talk with Veracity, later.

"Well he knows we're not in the robot now!" I said

"Overload the X-weapon." Spyder said

"Overload the X-weapon." Harris confirmed

"Mech X-ecute" Ryan yelled. The X-weapon overloaded, taking out most of the systems and destroying Traeger. Then Mech-x4 promptly fell back to Earth, and started burning up. My home for two years and that's how it's destroyed. I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry. I felt something on my cheek. A tear. Fuck it! I said I wouldn't cry. Dam you hormones.

"Is that Mech X4, burning up on re-entry?" Harper asked

"Yes." Ryan said

"I can't believe you did that." Harper said

"yea... it is. Um... I'm just gonna... I just... okay bye." I said quickly and walked away from the observation deck. I heard Spyder say something/threaten Harper. I walked for about 5 minutes before collapsing. That's when I began to silently sob. It's over. Mech X4, the team, all of it. After a couple minutes, I got up, dried my eyes and walked back.

"Are you okay?" Veracity asked

"Oh fine, yea... never better." I lied. Spyder put his arms around me in a hug.

"Are you sure?" Ryan asked. "Because your eyes-"

"I said im fine Ryan!" I steeled myself

"It doesn't feel real." Harris said. "it was like a second home to us."

"It was my home for 2 and a half years. Spending all that time in Mech X4, alone for that long, actually made me realize that I loved singing and dancing and wanted to act. Otherwise, I would've just been stuck, doing math or science, something I actually hated." I said.

"I used to think Mech X4 was just some cool weapon or battle suit... but it was more than that. Right?"

"yea... I mean, before Mech X4, I was just a moody loner." Veracity said. "Harris was a hyper-competitive weirdo, Spyder was destined to clean toilets at a fast food restaurant and would've never met Liza, Liza would've probably become depressed, forcing herself to work, Mark had already peaked, and Ryan was practically invisible." Veracity said

"Is this going somewhere?" Ryan asked

"Yea... this is the stuff I would've written in your yearbooks before the robot brought us together." Veracity said. "guys... the robot didn't just save the world, it saved us, too."

"Im gonna miss it." Ryan said

"We all are." I said

"So what happens next." Mark asked

"I don't know. But whatever happens next, we'll be ready." Ryan said

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, so I got bored, so I screenshot-ed the clip of Mech X4's hand and figured out it may have landed in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Anguilla, thank you google maps.


	24. Finale

Okay, so now that we're all caught up let me tell you what happened next. Not much happened since then. Harper took us back home, he died of a heart attack, no one really missed him. And then bam! The very next day was the Hamilton show. It was pure and utter chaos. Jordan, remember her, she'd come to the show.We had just finished up the first act and it was the 10 minute intermission. I was prepping for act two. I had just finished changing my dresses and I tied my hair up.

"Eliza..." Veracity panted, running up to me. "I just checked, we gave the band the music for first burn not burn. You're gonna have to memorize the lyrics for that."

"I have just over 16 minutes before I go on for Take a Break." I panicked

"I'll help you memorize the lyrics, just please, we need you to do this." Veracity said "Juliet can help." She told me and I nodded. She handed me the music sheets and ran back to help our Maria Reynolds fit into her red dress.

"Juliet! Help me! Please!" I yelled

"Okay. Uhh why don't you sing through with the lyrics and then slowly we'll take them away." She told me. I nodded and we began.

"time for Take a Break!" Veracity told me. I nodded and ran onstage.

"Alexander! Your son is nine years old today. He has something he'd like to say. He's been practicing all day. Philip take it away." I sang and started beatboxing.

"My name is Philip and I'm a poet, and I wrote this poem just to show it. And I just turned 9, you can write rhymes but you can't write mine." (WHAT!!!) "I practice French I play piano with my mother. I have a sister but I want a little brother. My daddy's trying to start America's bank. Un Deux Trois Quatre CINQ!!!!!"

*Timeskip*

I had just finished performing Schuyler defeated and was going over First Burn.

"Do you wanna sing it again?" Juliet asked

"I think I got it! If I forget, I'll just improvise." I said and she nodded. A couple minutes later it was time for burn.

"I saved every letter you wrote me

From the moment I saw you

I knew you were mine

You said you were mine

I thought you were mine

Do you know what Angelica said

When I told her what you'd done?

She said

"You have married an Icarus

He has flown too close to the sun"

Don't take another step in my direction

I can't be trusted around you

Don't think you can talk your way

Into my arms, into my arms

I'm burning the letters you wrote me

You can stand over there if you want

I don't know who you are

I have so much to learn

I'm re-reading your letters

And watching them burn (burn)

I'm watching them burn (burn)

You published the letters she wrote to you

You told the whole world

How you brought this girl into our bed

In clearing your name, you have ruined our lives

Heaven forbid someone whisper

"He's part of some scheme"

Your enemy whispers

So you have to scream

I know about whispers

I see how you look at my sister

Don't

I'm not naive

I have seen women around you

Don't

Think I don't see

How they fall for your charms

All your charms

I'm erasing myself from the narrative

Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted

When you broke her heart

You have thrown it all away

Stand back, watch it burn

Just watch it all burn

And when the time comes

Explain to the children

The pain and embarrassment

You put their mother through

When will you learn

That they are your legacy?

We are your legacy

If you thought you were mine (mine, mine)

Don't" I finished singing and walked off the stage with a bucket in my hands, full of burnt paper.

*timeskip*

"Oh, I can't wait to see you again

It's only a matter of time

Will they tell your story? (Time)

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? (Time)

Will they tell your story? (Time)

Who lives, who dies who tells your story?" I sang and tried to do the same heartbreaking gasp as Philippa Soo did. The curtains closed

Again after that performance, which was pretty fun, there was an afterparty at Juliet's we drank apple juice in shot glasses so uhhh yea... Spyder and I had a lot of fun at that party, he kissed me several times at that party too.

*end of ending part 1*

Okay so then after 4-ish years, we found Leo. PS, I had gone to that school for 2ish years, I still wanted an educations so I held off a little. He was hiding out in Anguilla. We found the robot hand and Leo is still trying to fully rebuild Mech X4. We've helped him out a lot with it. We even found the robot hand thanks to yours truly's ability to create underwater bubbles with air in them. And that's when I got another email saying I was supposed to audition for a musical called Six in London. Of course I was deathly terrified.

I decided to bring Leo, Spyder, Veracity, Jordan, Ryan, Harris and Mark with me. I went into the audition room terrified and had to sing in front of a panel of people. One of the girls, I think her name was Millie, gave me a thumbs up. I did my audition. They thanked me and I left. After that we went to platform 9 3/4 and pretty much spent the rest of our trip in Harry Potter world. A couple months later, I got a call.

"Hello?" I asked

"Hi... we're from-"

"Where I auditioned for Six, I know." I said

"right, anyways... we found your audition amazing and after a lot of careful consideration, we decided to cast you as Katherine Howard." They told me. "Well, actually, you'll be doing K. Howard for the Americans."

"Yea no that-that's great. Thank you." I called everybody and told them the great news.

Okay so now you're up to speed to the present day. Well not totally up to speed. I'm 22 now. I had performed 6 and it was a hit! I had then gone on to perform on different broadway plays and decided to write my own show. Oh yea and Spyder and I were still together and doing great thanks for asking. I then had an idea. I called the old Mech X4 team. Veracity was breaking the ceiling. She had become a world-renowned scientist, so had Harris except the difference was Veracity had won several Nobel prizes and Harris had not. Mark was an engineer and Ryan had become an electrician. Oh and Spyder had become a teacher but he also designed weapons for the military, ironic right.

"Guys..." I had called everyone on a group chat. "I've decided to write my own TV series. I was thinking we could base it off what we did in Freshman year. I'll change names though. Hmmm what do you think of Ryan, Mark, Harris, Veracity and Spyder. Oh an obviously I'll change the robot's name too. I'm thinking Mech X4." I said

"That's amazing but what about your name?" The only other girl in the chat asked me

"I'm thinking Elizabeth!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's officially done yay


End file.
